Lara Gut-Behrami won her first Olympic gold medal after winning the super-giant slalom of the Alpine Skiing Program at the Beijing 2022 Games. In this way, the Swiss doubled her achievement from 12 months ago, when she won the world title in the discipline of the championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Lara Gut-Behrami made her best time in the flat at the very end of the track, and the key to that was her perfect exit from the steep slope. She caught a very high line, which allowed her to maintain her speed and reach the gold. For her, it is the second medal from the Beijing Olympics, after the bronze in the giant slalom on Monday.
The silver remained in the hands of the Austrian Mirjam Puchner, who was 0.22 sec slower, and the bronze medal was again for Switzerland. It was won by Michelle Gisin, who was 0.30 sec slower than her teammate Lara Gut-Behrami.
The second Austrian Tamara Tippler finished fourth on 0.03 sec of the bronze, and the top five were completed by the Olympic champion from PyeongChang 2018 Ester Ledecka. The Czech was chasing her second gold in Beijing, after the parallel giant snowboard slalom, but this time she failed and lagged behind the top. The super-surprise made by Ester Ledecka in PyeongChang 2018 cannot be forgotten, when with start number 26 and skis on loan from Mikaela Shiffrin she reached the unexpected gold, beating the champion from Sochi 2014 Anna Veith with only 0.01 seconds.
The big failure today was for the Italians Federica Brignone and Elena Curtoni, who were named favorites for gold. The two have triumphed in the last three World Cup events, but today made a few minor mistakes in sectors where Lara Gut-Behrami was very fast and finished seventh and tenth, respectively.
Sofia Goggia, the best Italian in the speed disciplines, did not start today after her fall in Cortina d’Ampezzo three weeks ago. The Italian chose to stay in today’s race and focus on the downhill in which she will defend her title from PyeongChang 2018.
American Mikaela Shiffrin took part in the super-giant slalom and finished 9th. Mikaela Shiffrin, who has 73 career victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup, has been eliminated in both slalom and giant slalom, raising doubts about whether she is mentally ready to take part in the upcoming start. The 26-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin is not an expert in speed disciplines, but she still has a gold and a bronze medal from the last two world championships in the super-giant slalom.
