Featured image: Podium at the Kvitfjell super-G. Credit: GEPA

The women threw down on the seventh super-G of the 2024 season in Kvitfjell, Norway. This season has come with a mix of surprises, unfortunate injuries, great racing, and various cancellations. Nevertheless, the women had today and still have tomorrow to earn as many points as they can before the World Cup Finals and Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland reigned victorious on the track. 

“It is amazing. I am really happy about that. I never expected to still be racing at 32 and to be this consistent is great. Working hard pays off and I am happy for my team and everyone who has been helping me through this journey,“ Gut-Behrami stated. 

Before today Lara Gut-Behrami (360) was only leading by 5 points in front of Cornelia Hütter (355) in the super-G World Cup standings. This made it a nail-biting day of racing, as Hütter wearing bib-10, was fighting for that 1st-place result. 

Hütter was ahead of Gut-Behrami’s time throughout the entire course, until the last gliding section, where she lost some time that cost her the win. She came through the finish only +0.12 behind the super-G leader. 

This is Gut-Behrami’s third super-G win of the season and her 22nd in her career. She has the second most super-G wins for women, which challenges Lindsey Vonn’s record of 28 victories. 

Today, she further secured her overall and super-G globe standings, concluding the day with 460 super-G points. The athlete is impressively in the lead in downhill, super-G and GS and continues to look undefeatable. 

Gut-Behrami stated, “There is no strategy, but I am trying to enjoy what I am doing. I know I am not going to race a thousand races more, so I am trying to enjoy the way I am skiing and the feeling I have. I want to enjoy not just because I am skiing fast, but the sensation I have while doing it.”

Corenlia Hütter, finishing in 2nd place, earning her 13th super-G World Cup podium and 4th this season. The battle between her and Lara Gut-Behrami did widen from 5 points to 25 points, with Hütter finishing the day with a total of 435 points in the standings. She still has a chance tomorrow to earn victory.

Mirjam Puchner rounded out the podium, +0.13 behind Gut-Behrami’s time. Wearing bib-9, Puchner established a huge lead at the top of the course, but the Austrian lost time towards the bottom in the gliding section. This marks the Austrians third super-G podium and second of the season. Puchner currently sits 5th in the standings, moving up two spots today with 258 points heading into tomorrow. 

The day had a tie for fourth place between German Kira Weidle and Czech skier Ester Ledecka. 

This result marked Weisdle’s career-best in super-G and 8th top-10 in the discipline. Her last best result was 7th place in 2023 in the St.Anton super-G. It was an exhilarating day for the 28-year-old. 

After the top-20 racers, the course seemed to pick up speed at the top as most racers were clocking the fastest interval times in the first two sectors. It was thrilling to watch because the later athletes would establish a lead from the beginning. Nonetheless, the visibility worsened throughout the race, and the times were slowing significantly as the women would come into the last few sectors of the course.

North Americans

Stifel US Ski Team racer, Lauren Macuga has been having a milestone season. She continues to outperform her results, earning a career-best today, finishing in 7th place. Her last best was 10th place in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee this season. Wearing bib-4, she came down attacking the line, and even with a mistake towards the bottom of the run, coming sideways off the null, she was able to hang in there and come through the finish with an outstanding result for the young athlete. 

Lauren Macuga stated, “I feel like my skiing was charging everywhere, other than that last turn. I lost so much there, but other than that I was in there and so close,” she continued, “You have to charge this course, you have to be on it and give everything you got out there. You can never let up cause otherwise you will loose your speed coming into the flats and then you are out.”

It was Macuga’s first time racing with a top-20 bib number on the World Cup. She stated, “I didn’t realize how much of a game changer it is. Racing a clean course was great because I usually am running in the back of the pack, so it was so nice to run a clean course. But, it is interesting because you don’t get to watch a lot of racers, so you have to trust your plan.”

Her teammate, Isabella Wright, came out of the start gate attacking. She had the fastest two starting intervals, but her intervals widened from Gut-Behrami’s lead in the mid-section of the course. Unfortunately, she lost more time in the last gliding sections. She finished the day in 18th place. 

Wright stated, “It is nice to cross the finish line and I had a good run going for the first half of it and then just had some mistakes on the bottom,” she continued, “If you have any sort of mistake you can kill a lot of speed on this hill, so you have to be very strategic with that. So, I think I unfortunately lost some speed, which cost me some time, so I am leaving wanting more. I am happy that we have another one tomorrow.”

Wright further expands on the hardships she has faced this season. She explained, “It has been a battle this year, especially in super-G. But, it is my favorite event, so I am just looking forward to doing another one tomorrow.”

With this race switching to a super-G from a scheduled downhill, Wright does not get another chance to race for a spot in the World Cup finals for downhill, which she was close to achieving top-25 in the DH World Cup standings (29). She stated, “It has been a very tough week or so, especially yesterday knowing that the training run was canceled and my chances were gone. My team was supporting me, so it has been really tough to process, but also I was grateful for another chance in super-G today.”

The last few racers from the Stifel US Ski Team, Tricia Mangan (bib-40), Jacqueline Wiles (bib-41), and Keely Cashman (bib-42), endured the challenges of increasingly worse visibility, which cost the final racers significant time at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately, this cost them the top 30, so they were unable to score in this second-to-last 2024 super-G race. 

The absence of Mikaela Shiffrin is greatly felt, and she is eager to come back from injury, hopefully, to compete in the final races of 2024.

Kvitfjell super-G Results and Analysis of the Fastest Three and North Americans

Fastest Three Analysis

Top-30 North Americans