Lara Gut-Behrami won the World Cup season title in super-G for the fifth time on Friday, doing just enough by placing seventh in the final race won by the 2018 Olympic champion Ester Ledecka in Saalbaach, Austria.
The 32-year-old Gut-Behrami needed to finish eighth or better to protect her lead in the standings and claim a third crystal globe trophy of her stellar season. The Swiss star, who won her first World Cup race in 2008 at the age of 17, already clinched the overall and giant slalom titles.
In Friday’s race, Gut-Behrami’s nearest challengers Federica Brignone and Cornelia Huetter were second and fifth, respectively.
Gut-Behrami’s season-long points total in super-G rose to 576, finishing 30 ahead of Brignone. Huetter was 60 points back in third.
“Super-G is the discipline I really love,” said Gut-Behrami, who won Olympic gold in the discipline in 2022. “To win the globe again is unbelievable.”
Ledecka’s clean skiing in the Austrian sunshine was 0.28 seconds faster than Brignone and 0.30 ahead of third-placed Kajsa Vickhoff Lie.
Gut-Behrami skied safely and trailed Ledecka by 0.52, despite clocking the fastest speed at almost 121 kph (75 mph).
Ledecka got the fourth World Cup win of her Alpine skiing career — all since the versatile Czech star’s stunning win at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games where she completed an unprecedented double by also taking gold in snowboard, in the parallel giant slalom event.
The women’s ski season ends Saturday with a downhill that could see Gut-Behrami seal another title. She will start 68 points ahead of Stephanie Venier, needing to finish no worse than ninth to top the standings.
Source Agencies
