Gut-Behrami wins super-G title; Shiffrin 14th

Lara Gut-Behrami. Photo: GEPA pictures.

SOLDEU, Andorra — Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami earns the women’s 2023 World Cup super-G title by winning the Soldeu Andorra finals. Mikaela Shiffrin finished 14th in her first race after setting the record for most career victories with 87.

It was also her fourth 2022-23 super-G podium of the season.

Federica Brignone finished (+0.22) seconds behind Gut-Behrami in second place. Norwegian skier Ragnhild Mowinckel was (+0.47) behind in third. Both needed to finish ahead of Gut-Behrami to win the super-G title. However, with their great final super-G results, Brignone finishes the season ranked 2nd and Mowinckel finishes third in the season discipline standings.

Brignone was the first of the five remaining 2023 title contenders to ski. The Italian skied like a believer and crossed the finish line with a (-0.97) lead, then took the leader’s chair to experience her fate. She had to win to earn the title. First, she saw off contender Mowinckel, but then relinquished the lead to eventual winner Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami. It was then that Italy’s Elena Curtoni and Austrian Cornelia Huetter were the only ones mathematically capable of taking the title from Gut-Behrami. Neither women did.

Gut-Behrami executed a near-flawless run on the Aliga course to win the last super-G of the season and overtake Italian rival Elena Curtoni in the standings. Curtoni finished (+1.23) seconds behind in 10th, a day after she crashed in the downhill race on the same hill. However, Curtoni said her crash in the downhill didn’t affect her performance in Thursday’s race.

“I’m a little bit sore but that’s not an excuse, for sure,” said the Italian, who was the super-G junior world champion in 2011. “I know I can be good, I was showing it the whole season. I will keep on working.”

“It’s been a rollercoaster this season and I’m happy today,” Gut-Behrami said. “I just wanted to ski and not have regrets. Sometimes that’s the best way, just stop thinking. I didn’t focus on the lines and just tried to be fast.”

The event brought tears to Gut-Behrami’s face. She also won Olympic gold in the super-G in 2022, the world title in 2021, and the overall World Cup champion in 2016.

Including her triumph in St. Anton two months ago, Gut-Behrami became the only female skier with multiple super-G victories this season.

While all other discipline titles had been decided before finals week, coming into Thursday’s race, five racers had a shot at the women’s super-G globe. The previous seven races had produced seven different winners.

Shiffrin won one, in St. Moritz in December, but was out of contention for the discipline title after sitting out three races.

Shiffrin was the only North American in the race and ended the day in 14th, adding to her impressive 2023 World Cup point total.

The American surpassed Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark on the all-time winners list with het 87th career victory last Saturday.

“This last week it’s just been a lot of media, and a lot of talking about what I have achieved, like kind of past tense,” Shiffrin said. “In my own mind, I think about basically where I am now, how I want to ski, and the possibility for motivation in the future.”

The American avoided risks in her run and trailed leader Gut-Behrami by (+0.79) seconds at the first split. She slowed before a jump but picked up time again by posting the fastest time in the final sector. She ended up (+1.46) seconds behind Gut-Behrami.

“It can be a little bit tiring, World Cup Finals, but it’s also such a pleasure to be here racing with no pressure from the globes,” Shiffrin said. “So it’s really just basically my own motivation to see if I can execute good skiing.”

Before the World Cup finals races in her best events, Shiffrin has locked up the overall, giant slalom and slalom season titles. The final slalom is on Saturday and the giant slalom is Sunday.

At the end of the race, Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer descended the course in shorts and a jacket for her ceremonial retirement run. Schmidhofer earned 12 World Cup podiums in her career and was the 2017 super-G world champion.

Schmidhofer and Gut-Behrami shared a podium at the junior world championships in 2006.

“It’s an emotional day, the win, the globe, Nicole quitting,” Gut-Behrami said. “I think I’m getting older and getting more emotional. It’s crazy. I’m crying all the time, but it’s a nice feeling sometimes.”

Results and analysis of the fastest three and Shiffrin

Analysis of the fastest three and Shiffrin

The Associated Press contributed to this report.