Gut-Behrami the best in Cortina Giant Slalom

Lara Gut-Behrami will leave Cortina as a double World Champion after winning today’s giant slalom. Today’s gold medal joins her gold in the super-G and a bronze medal finish in the downhill.

Prior to these World Championships, the pressure was on the Swiss star to bring home her first career gold medal and she answered the call emphatically, already taking that pressure off in the opening race of Cortina with the super-G win. Gut-Behrami’s World Championship career medal haul now stands at eight with three bronze, three silver and two golds.

“This was definitely unexpected for me today,” said Gut-Behrami. “I’m really thrilled with the result, to finish my World Championships in the giant slalom with a gold is a dream.”

But the dream did not come easy as a long course pushed the field to its limit in a highly competitive race. In the end, less than one tenth of a second was the difference between gold and bronze in a tight, hard-fought race today.

Mikaela Shiffrin took the silver medal a mere 0.02 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.

“It was a tough fight. It wasn’t an easy one, so I’m pretty psyched to get a medal today,” said Mikaela Shiffrin of her silver. “The second run had a lot more turns, which was a big change from the first run. In the past I didn’t adjust as well as I did today, so that was a big difference.”

Coming in third was Austrian Katharina Liensberger, just 0.09 seconds behind. The young Austrian now has two medals in Cortina after earning the gold in the parallel. The 23-year-old is more of a star in the slalom and has just one career podium in the World Cup giant slalom.

“I’m completely surprised and really happy with my finish today,” said Liensberger. “I had a good first run, which put me in a good position, but to earn a medal today was unexpected for me.”

The second run today was clearly slower and longer for the athletes with the different course set, but also because warm temperatures slowed the course. Naturally, the starting field of 99 in the first run also took its toll on the course, but the majority of the athletes were impressed with how well the snow held up under the challenging conditions.

Tomorrow it the men’s turn to claim their medals in the giant slalom. The action starts at 10:00 with the second run at 13:30.