Since the retirement of Lara Gut-Behrami, there has been a gaping hole at the top of the Swiss women's ski team. Thanks to Camille Rast, the podium places have not been missing since the second half of November.
29.12.2025, 19:00
SDA
The numbers are telling: in 2024/25, with Lara Gut-Behrami as a reliable points supplier in three disciplines and the only athlete who can challenge Federica Brignone to win the overall World Cup, the Swiss are the clear number 2 in the women's national rankings, just behind the Italians - well ahead of Austria and even further ahead of the USA.
At the end of December 2025, the picture is completely different: the Austrians and Julia Scheib, the woman of the moment in giant slalom, are in the lead, just ahead of the USA with slalom dominator Mikaela Shiffrin. The Swiss are only 600 points behind, the Italians more than 800.
Italy without Brignone, Switzerland without Gut-Behrami
The reason is obvious: Italy has had to make do without Brignone so far, while Switzerland has been without Gut-Behrami since mid-November. Two-time overall World Cup winner Brignone suffered a serious injury in March and is fighting to return before the home Olympic Games in February. Gut-Behrami's season is over following a cruciate ligament rupture in November and the continuation of her career is open.
Gut-Behrami's absence is of course a major blow to the Swiss women's team, especially as Corinne Suter and Michelle Gisin are also injured, Malorie Blanc is only at the start of a promising career in the speed disciplines at the age of 21 and the technical skiers around Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener are finding the Olympic winter slow going.
But now, while Holdener, who is often so reliable, is still waiting for her first podium finish of the season, Camille Rast is on the spot. The 26-year-old slalom world champion has finished on the podium four times since the end of November. Twice she came second last weekend, as she did before Christmas in Courchevel, and twice she prevented her first World Cup victory of the season by a hundredth of a second. "Things are going well at the moment," says Rast with satisfaction on Sunday.
Versatile artist
There were early signs that Rast could one day become a winning skier. She attended circus school for three years at a young age, easily acquiring balance and acrobatic skills that would help her in all sports.
The counterpart to skiing in summer is mountain biking, for which she is similarly enthusiastic. As a ski racer, she benefits from in-depth expertise early on; her coaching team includes Florian Lorimier, Didier Cuche's former fitness coach, for example
In 2017, Rast finishes 9th in her fifth World Cup race, a giant slalom in Val di Fassa, with bib number 44. Shortly afterwards, she became Junior World Champion in the slalom.
But then came the first major setback. Pfeiffer's glandular fever hit Rast hard, forcing the then 18-year-old to abandon the 2017/18 season and leading to depression. She was "dead inside", she says looking back.
Injuries, material problems, mental strength
Since then, Rast's rise has been undulating. In 2019, when she had fought her way back with professional support, a torn cruciate and medial ligament forced the next standstill. In 2022, a change of equipment set her back. Instead of taking the next step on Salomon skis, she experienced a winter to forget in 2022/23. After just one year, she switched back to her longstanding supplier Head, where she found her way back to her old level with a little start-up time and climbed to the top of the slalom at the 2025 World Championships.
Ongoing hip problems due to a fall in Sestriere shortly after the World Championships raise new question marks, fueling doubts after a mediocre start to the season with 15th places in Sölden and Levi. "Bad Swiss start in the forest of poles" was a headline from the Keystone-SDA news agency after the slalom opener in mid-November.
But Camille Rast can once again rely on her mental strength. For six weeks, she has carried the Swiss women's team almost like Lara Gut-Behrami before her - and the 26-year-old from Valais is the women's great hope for the Olympic races in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
