Ski World Championships, Brignone is silver in super giant. Austrian Venier wins. Goggia is fifth

Saalbach, 6 February 2025 – Italy find another medal at the Alpine Ski World Championships, too bad it wasn't gold. Federica Brignone she almost achieved the feat in the super-G, on a track with few technical areas, where she excels, but the period remains in great shape and the Aosta Valley native won a precious silver, behind only Stephanie Venier who preceded her by just ten hundredths. Fede should not be disappointed as she did her best on an unsuitable track. Gold therefore for the home team, but Italy is there and so is Sofia goggia she missed out on a medal, finishing fifth by just six hundredths of a second. A bronze medal was shared between Maguey e Lie.

The race

Super G flowing, not too twisty and not far from a downhill, but you don't have to push too hard on the snow to avoid losing speed and even the bumps have to be tamed and read to avoid making mistakes in lines and trajectories. There aren't too many curves and you stay in an aerodynamic position, so the track penalizes a bit the more technical skiers, including our Laura Pirovano and Martha bassino (out of ten) that pay a lot in the scrolling phase. Brignone, instead, gets excited, goes down with courage, despite the few curves, and puts more than a second ahead of Lara Left-footed was leading up to that point, but Stephanie Venier (1'20”47), who came down immediately after, did everything slightly better and sent Saalbach into raptures with the best time by ten hundredths on the Aosta Valley native. A joke, but Fede can still be satisfied because she had never won a medal in super g and the track was anything but suitable for her. Not even Sofia goggia she manages to beat the Austrian, thanks to a line error on the second jump and in the end she has to settle for fifth place at 30 hundredths, postponing the appointment with the world gold that has always been missing from her. In front of her the always concrete Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, third at 24 hundredths, tied with the American Laure Maguey, descended with bib 14.

Bad Lara good Behrami, never in rhythm with the not very technical track and always chasing the lines a bit without generating speed: the Swiss is only eighth at 70 hundredths, behind even Aicher e Ledecka, while the blue Elena Curtoni, who suffered from an unsuitable track, is ninth at 76 hundredths. There was also anticipation for Lindsey Vonn, down with thirty, but the forty-year-old American champion straddled with one arm after a few gates, exiting the scene. The condition of the limb needs to be checked since Vonn seemed to be in a lot of pain. Italy therefore takes a silver and follows in the wake of the gold in parallel. Tomorrow it's the men's turn.

The ranking

1 Venier 1'20”47 2 Brignone +0.10 3 Macuga +0-24 3 Lie +0.24 5 Goggia +0-30 6 Aicher +0.52 7 Ledecka +0.63 8 Gut Behrami +0.70 9 Curtoni +0.76 10 Huetter +0.91