Federica Brignone also dominates the first World Cup giant slalom after winning the World Championship title. The Italian wins in Sestriere ahead of World Championship silver medallist Alice Robinson. Camille Rast was the best Swiss racer in 9th place, while Lara Gut-Behrami was eliminated in the first run.
Brignone, who had won the duel against Robinson by nine tenths in the World Championship giant slalom a week ago, was four tenths ahead this time. After half of the race, the New Zealander led the classification by 19 hundredths ahead of Brignone. Brignone and Robinson were once again clearly ahead of the competition. Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund took third place, more than one and a half seconds behind.
Brignone, who had to stay in bed with a fever after her big day in Saalbach due to the flu, took her third victory in a giant slalom this World Cup winter. In Sestriere, where she had already won five years ago together with Petra Vlhova from Slovakia, one of the two giant slaloms canceled in Mont-Tremblant was made up for. The two competitions planned at the beginning of December in the town in the Canadian province of Quebec could not be held due to a lack of snow.
Swiss women disappoint
The Swiss women had nothing to do with the battle for the best places. After Lara Gut-Behrami's elimination in the first run, Camille Rast was only able to fill the gap in the rankings from a Swiss perspective to a limited extent. The slalom world champion equaled her third-best ranking in her second discipline this winter with 9th place.
Wendy Holdener also delivered a countable result in the sixth giant slalom of this World Cup winter. However, 20th place is not what the racer from Schwyz had hoped for. The third Swiss finalist Vanessa Kasper, who lost her Swiss-Ski squad status after last winter, secured World Cup points for the second time this winter and for the fifth time overall in a giant slalom thanks to 28th place.
Lara Gut-Behrami did not finish in a World Cup giant slalom for the first time in almost two years. The skier from Ticino failed in the lowest section of the course. Stefanie Grob, Delphine Darbellay and Janine Schmitt also failed to finish in the first run. World Cup debutant Sue Piller and Selina Egloff clearly missed out on qualifying for the final round.
Mikaela Shiffrin took it easy in her first start in a giant slalom since her momentous crash at the end of November in Killington, Vermont. The American found herself in 25th place in the rankings.
The ranking
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