Federica Brignone won a wind-swept World Cup super-G Sunday in St. Moritz, Switzerland, that saw pre-race favorite Lara Gut-Behrami crash out through the safety fences.
Brignone was 0.11 faster than her Italian teammate Elena Curtoni down a fast course shortened to less than one minute. The start was brought lower down the exposed Corviglia hill by strong crosswinds higher up.
Mikaela Shiffrin extended her lead in the overall standings by placing third despite wearing the No. 2 bib. The early start gave her little idea how gusty winds would affect racing in the bright sunshine after a 50-minute delay.
“I was a little bit nervous running [No.] 2 already,” Shiffrin told Swiss broadcaster RTS. “Sometimes you get this push from the wind from behind and then it’s a little hard to handle that speed.”
It proved tough even for No. 7 starter Gut-Behrami, the world champion in super-G who had won Saturday when cloud cover made the rolling terrain tough to see.
The Swiss star went too fast on a direct line approaching a sharp left-hand turn she was unlikely to make. She was unbalanced by the terrain and went sideways standing upright into and through the safety fences.
Gut-Behrami sat still on the snow awaiting attention and was later filmed in the finish area limping to congratulate Brignone in the leader’s chair.
A banner day for the Italian team seemed likely when it held five of the first six places after the top-20 elite group had started. Curtoni had also clocked the fastest speed of 99.3 kph (61.7 mph).
However, the wind conditions and blue skies proved favorable to lower-ranked starters.
Starting No. 26, Alice Robinson of New Zealand took fourth place and No. 31 Ramona Siebenhofer of Austria was fifth.
Roni Remme was the top Canadian finisher in 44th. Marie-Michèle Gagnon did not finish.
Those unexpected results pushed Sofia Goggia, who was runner-up Saturday, down to sixth trailing Brignone by 0.75. She lost most of that time being cautious through the fast section that took out Gut-Behrami.
Goggia now leads the season-long super-G standings, breaking the tie she had shared with Gut-Behrami.
Brignone’s 17th career World Cup win was her fifth in super-G. Five of those 17 wins helped her become the overall World Cup champion two seasons ago.
Defending overall champion Petra Vlhova, who specializes in slalom and giant slalom, skipped the two super-G races in St. Moritz.
Shiffrin said she now plans to sit out next weekend’s downhill and super-G at Val d’Isere, France to catch up on training. Only slalom and giant slalom races are scheduled from Dec. 21 through Jan. 11.
The American earned 60 World Cup points for each of her third-place finishes in St. Moritz and leads Goggia by 90 in the overall standings.
“I feel strong physically and I feel good with my skiing,” Shiffrin said, though hedged on targeting a fourth career World Cup title. “We have to wait a little bit longer to see.”
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