Latest news with #Gut-Behrami
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
As Alpine skiing World Cup season ends, stage is set for a star-studded Olympics
KETCHUM, Idaho — The top three finishers in the women's super-G at the Alpine skiing World Cup finals have combined for 323 podium spots on the sport's top circuit, along with 167 wins and eight overall season titles. That's all to go with 22 world championship medals and nine Olympic medals. And yet on March 23, for the first time at any of those events, Lara Gut-Behrami, Lindsey Vonn and Federica Brignone — three of the great speed skiers of all time — were all on the same podium for the first time. Advertisement It was one of the defining images of a week where all three were in the headlines throughout the season's final event. The Italian Brignone won the downhill, giant slalom and overall season titles. Switzerland's Gut-Behrami unleashed a perfect run in that super-G to win the race, swiping the season title away from Brignone, to finish second in the overall standings. And Vonn finished second in that race, right between the two current titans of speed events in women's Alpine, adding more weight to the notion that she can be a medal contender next winter in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, when she will be 41 years old. Then Thursday, Mikaela Shiffrin won her 101st career World Cup race, taking the slalom in the season's final event. She wasn't able to compete in the giant slalom at the World Cup finals — she didn't have enough points after missing much of the season due to injury and struggling in that event in her return — but she made clear she intends to keep training for it. As the world's best Alpine skiers head into the offseason before the 2026 Olympics, the names to watch leading into the Games are quite clear. At 34, Brignone had the best season of her career with 10 World Cup race victories to notch her second career overall title and is poised to be a gold-medal favorite in her home country. Fellow Italian Sofia Goggia, a four-time winner of the World Cup downhill title, just matched her career best with a third-place finish in the overall standings. Brignone and Goggia will carry high hopes for Italy into an Olympics in their backyard. 'The Olympics are something really big and amazing,' Brignone said this week. 'For sure, making a big event at home, it (gives) you a lot of pressure. I hope that (the whole team) can be calm and show our best because it's going to be an amazing slope for the men (in Bormio), amazing slope for the women (in Cortina). It's going to be something that emotionally will be forever there.' Advertisement 'Me and Federica are pushing the team really hard,' Goggia, 32, said, 'and we're pushing each other. That's it. When you have good horses, start to run fast, everyone is going to run faster.' The 32-year-old Gut-Behrami won her third straight super-G title with a rousing performance last Sunday and is in a position to be the favorite to defend her Olympic gold in the event from 2022. And Vonn showed that she's to be taken every bit as seriously. 'A lot of people said when I retired at 33 that I was too old,' Vonn said. 'So the fact that (Brignone) at 34 just won the overall title, Lara's still skiing, I mean — age is just a number. If you feel good and you're mentally still driven and you work hard, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.' Asked about the three 30-plus-year-olds on the super-G podium, Gut-Behrami pointed to the experience factor. 'You have to be clever,' she said. 'And usually with a few more runs in super-G, (with) more experience, it's easier to be fast on these courses.' Across the fastest three disciplines, some of the best to ever do it are poised to go head-to-head at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn (first, with 43), Goggia (fourth, with 19) and Gut-Behrami (tied for eighth, with 13) are three of the winningest World Cup downhill skiers of all time. Vonn (28) and Gut-Behrami (24) are 1-2 all-time in super-G, with Brignone in fifth (13). Shiffrin (22) and Brignone (17) are first and third all-time, respectively, in giant slalom. As for slalom, the headliner will be Shiffrin, whose record 64 World Cup wins in that discipline are nearly double the second-highest total. Her chief rival of recent years, Slovakia's Petra Vlhová, has missed more than a year due to a knee injury. But anything can happen in a single race on the Olympic stage, and Shiffrin has another foe to overcome — rebounding from 2022. Advertisement At the Beijing Olympics, Shiffrin competed in all six events. She didn't finish three of the races and, surprisingly, came home without any medals — including skiing out in her signature event, the slalom, while Vlhová won gold. Now, less than a year out, Shiffrin is the slalom favorite and intends to train for giant slalom as well. Shiffrin and Vonn aren't the only Americans who intend to have a say. Lauren Macuga, 22, was the top U.S. skier in the two speed disciplines and won a super-G race in January for her first career World Cup win. Breezy Johnson won a surprising gold in the downhill at the world championships and finished sixth in the downhill World Cup standings. And Paula Moltzan took giant slalom bronze at the worlds. There's greatness on the men's side, too. Since the Beijing Olympics, Switzerland's Marco Odermatt has seized control of the sport, winning four straight overall World Cup titles. He has won the downhill, super-G and giant slalom crystal globes each of the last two years. Just 27, he's already sixth on the all-time World Cup wins list for men with 45. The men's slalom might be the most compelling of the bunch. Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen secured his fourth slalom season title on Thursday, but it was not easy. He finished fourth in the race to hold off Switzerland's Loïc Meillard and fellow Norwegian Timon Haugan, who won the race, in the standings. Kristoffersen called it a 'relief' more than happiness to retain his spot atop the standings and teased that he might not return next season because of the toll this year had taken. Of all the names on the list, the only one that couldn't have been predicted a year ago is Vonn, who just four months back into competitive skiing after nearly a six-year absence has made herself a serious medal threat for the final chapter of her career. She plans to retire, for good, after the 2026 Olympics. At an event last Tuesday outside a ski lodge to promote her new line of clothing, on the opposite side of the mountain on which two days earlier she had produced the most impressive run of her comeback, Vonn took pictures with and signed autographs for fans. A DJ played music nearby with a backdrop of chairlifts and gondolas bringing recreational skiers up the mountain for their runs. Vonn-branded cookies made the rounds. If you had gone to sleep when Vonn left the sport in 2019 and woken up just then, you'd think the scene makes perfect sense for a recently retired star athlete. Advertisement Except Vonn is very much back. There is still a partial World Cup season to unfold before the Milan-Cortina Games begin. Nothing is certain yet. But as the 2024-25 season ends, Alpine skiing is set up for a blockbuster Olympics, headlined by the very real possibility of Vonn winning another medal. 'I know for next year that I belong on the podium,' Vonn said. (Top photo of Lindsey Vonn, Lara Gut-Behrami and Federica Brignone: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Brignone claims World Cup giant slalom title as Gut-Behrami wins finale
Italy's Federica Brignone claimed the alpine World Cup giant slalom crown on Tuesday with a runner-up finish to Lara Gut-Behrami in the season finale at Sun Valley, Idaho. Brignone, who had secured the overall and downhill season titles on Saturday, came into the final giant slalom 20 points behind leader Alice Robinson. But Robinson failed to complete the first leg and Brignone -- who needed only a 13th-placed finish to claim the title -- finished with a flourish, notching the fastest time of the second leg to come 14-hundredths behind Gut-Behrami's total of 2min 10.01sec. "It's been a crazy and amazing season for me," Brignone said. "It's just incredible. I never thought I was able to ski like that, like this year –- to stay focused and to really be on my skis and ski like that. It's something magical." It was Gut-Behrami's second victory of the finals, after her super-G win on Sunday to clinch her sixth season title in that discipline. Brignone was second-fastest in the first leg, 45-hundredths of a second behind Gut-Behrami. But she said she thought her chances of contending, and capturing a third season title, had ended with a "terrible mistake" on the lower section of the first run. - 'Not an easy course' - "I lost so much," said Brignone, who started first on the first run and had stormed through the upper reaches of the course but then had to fight her way to the finish. "I thought I was losing everything, but in the end it was really not an easy course, not an easy setting and slope so everybody made a mistake -- especially Alice and she went out. "I don't know how I could stay in, actually. It was a never give up thing. "And then in the second run, I wanted just to go at the finish, you know, but then somehow I wanted also to attack... I wanted to try to win the race. So I was trying to attack, but holding (back) a little bit. "When I crossed the finish line, I was already happy. I knew I'd won the World Cup, so I was really happy." Robinson had been hoping to become the first New Zealander to win a World Cup globe. But after surviving an early wobble on the first run she lost her balance on a deep turn on the bottom of the course and couldn't recover -- one of six skiers among the 28 who started that failed to finish the first leg. Brignone, whose overall World Cup title was her first, claimed her second giant slalom globe to go with the one she won in 2020. Gut-Behrami, who was runner-up in the overall standings, claimed her 48th World Cup victory and her 100th podium since making her debut in December of 2007. "Yeah, 100 podiums -- it's unbelievable," she said. Sweden's Olympic champion Sara Hector completed the podium, finishing 80-hundredths of a second back. rg/bb/nf
CNN
24-03-2025
- Sport
- CNN
Lindsey Vonn takes 2nd in the final World Cup race of her comeback season, Lara Gut-Behrami wins
Lindsey Vonn concluded her comeback season at age 40 with a second-place finish in a World Cup super-G race Sunday that was won by Swiss standout Lara Gut-Behrami. Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals. The American pumped her ski poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the large crowd roared. This was Vonn's first World Cup podium spot since March 15, 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement. 'As much as I love skiing, it's been a hard road,' Vonn said after the race. 'I just continue to prove that anything is possible. I've been knocked down so many times in my life personally, physically, mentally, beat down and I always pick myself back up. It's not always easy. 'It's actually really (expletive) hard work. But that's what it takes, putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the hard days. When you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it leads you to a place like today.' Vonn becomes the oldest female Alpine ski racer to step on the podium of a World Cup race — by six years. It was Vonn's 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria. Not that 34-year-old Italian racer Federica Brignone is all that surprised. 'She's Lindsey Vonn,' Brignone said. 'She's not somebody coming back from another injury. She has qualities and she's an amazing champion. Today, she put all the pieces (together) and did an amazing race.' Gut-Behrami finished in a time of 1 minute, 12.35 seconds — edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds — to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday's race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. The final season-long super-G standings ended up Gut-Behrami, Brignone and Sofia Goggia of Italy. 'Two days ago, I finally found the happiness again on skis,' Gut-Behrami said. 'It's easier to ski fast when you're enjoying what you're doing. I've been looking for that the entire season.' On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall title. The next race at World Cup finals is Tuesday with a women's giant slalom.
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Lindsey Vonn lands first podium since 2018 to complete ‘impossible' comeback at 40
Lindsey Vonn concluded her comeback season at age 40 with a second-place finish in a World Cup super-G race that was won by Swiss standout Lara Gut-Behrami. Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals. The American pumped her ski poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the large crowd roared. This was Vonn's first World Cup podium spot since 15 March 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement. "As much as I love skiing, it's been a hard road," Vonn said after the race. "I just continue to prove that anything is possible. I've been knocked down so many times in my life personally, physically, mentally, beat down and I always pick myself back up. It's not always easy. "It's actually really (expletive) hard work. But that's what it takes, putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the hard days. When you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it leads you to a place like today.' Vonn becomes the oldest female Alpine ski racer to step on the podium of a World Cup race — by six years. It was Vonn's 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria. Not that 34-year-old Italian racer Federica Brignone is all that surprised. "She's Lindsey Vonn," Brignone said. "She's not somebody coming back from another injury. She has qualities and she's an amazing champion. Today, she put all the pieces (together) and did an amazing race." Gut-Behrami finished in a time of 1 minute, 12.35 seconds — edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds — to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday's race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. The final season-long super-G standings ended up Gut-Behrami, Brignone and Sofia Goggia of Italy. "Two days ago, I finally found the happiness again on skis," Gut-Behrami said. "It's easier to ski fast when you're enjoying what you're doing. I've been looking for that the entire season." On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall next race at World Cup finals is Tuesday with a women's giant slalom. AP
CNN
23-03-2025
- Sport
- CNN
Lindsey Vonn takes 2nd in the final World Cup race of her comeback season, Lara Gut-Behrami wins
Lindsey Vonn concluded her comeback season at age 40 with a second-place finish in a World Cup super-G race Sunday that was won by Swiss standout Lara Gut-Behrami. Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals. The American pumped her ski poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the large crowd roared. This was Vonn's first World Cup podium spot since March 15, 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement. 'As much as I love skiing, it's been a hard road,' Vonn said after the race. 'I just continue to prove that anything is possible. I've been knocked down so many times in my life personally, physically, mentally, beat down and I always pick myself back up. It's not always easy. 'It's actually really (expletive) hard work. But that's what it takes, putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the hard days. When you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it leads you to a place like today.' Vonn becomes the oldest female Alpine ski racer to step on the podium of a World Cup race — by six years. It was Vonn's 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria. Not that 34-year-old Italian racer Federica Brignone is all that surprised. 'She's Lindsey Vonn,' Brignone said. 'She's not somebody coming back from another injury. She has qualities and she's an amazing champion. Today, she put all the pieces (together) and did an amazing race.' Gut-Behrami finished in a time of 1 minute, 12.35 seconds — edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds — to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday's race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. The final season-long super-G standings ended up Gut-Behrami, Brignone and Sofia Goggia of Italy. 'Two days ago, I finally found the happiness again on skis,' Gut-Behrami said. 'It's easier to ski fast when you're enjoying what you're doing. I've been looking for that the entire season.' On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall title. The next race at World Cup finals is Tuesday with a women's giant slalom.
