Meribel 2023 downhill world runner-up Nina Ortlieb (Austria) won the super-giant slalom of the Alpine Skiing World Cup at the Norwegian winter center Kvitfjell, with two more of her compatriots on the podium. The competition took place, but in very difficult weather conditions.
Nina Ortlieb finished in 1:29.25 min after having the second-fastest time in the final section of the course. Thus, she achieved the second victory of her career.
At 0.12 sec from the winner, Stephanie Venier was second, and Franziska Gritsch was third with a lag of 0.38 sec. This is the first podium for Austria in this women’s event since December 2005.
American Mikaela Shiffrin, who is fighting to equal Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark’s historic record of 86 World Cup victories, finished seventh, 0.98 sec behind the winner.
The race, complicated by persistent snow, was interrupted after a heavy fall by New Zealand’s skier Alice Robinson, who came to rest in the safety nets but escaped uninjured.
All three Austrians started in the back numbers and took advantage of better visibility and the end of the snowfall to set the best times almost back to back.
The Italian Sofia Goggia, second in Saturday’s downhill in Kvitfjell, is fourth at 0.69 sec, but is quite critical of the conditions of the competition.
In the general classification after 32 out of 38 starts, Mikaela Shiffrin, who has already secured her fifth career World Cup globe, has an insurmountable lead of 1,828 points, ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami (Switzerland) with 1,007 points, who finished 20th today. Third is Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) with 975 points.
In the standings for the small crystal globe, Elena Curtoni (Italy) leads with 332 points, followed by Lara Gut-Behrami with 313 points and Cornelia Hutter (Austria) with 307 points.
