Alpine ski World Cup 23/24: Lara Gut-Behrami wins Soldeu giant slalom to overtake Mikaela Shiffrin in overall standings - Results
The Swiss moved up from ninth on the first run to claim her fourth giant slalom victory of the season by one-hundredth of a second from Alice Robinson with AJ Hurt third.
Alpine Skiing
Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami clawed her way back from ninth place on the first run to win the Soldeu giant slalom in Andorra, on Saturday (10 February).
A fourth giant slalom win of the season saw the Olympic Super G champion move above Mikaela Shiffrin at the top of the overall FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup standings, with the American star recovering from a knee injury sustained in a crash at last month's Cortina downhill.
Gut-Behrami had plenty to do after her opening descent, trailing leader Marta Bassino by 0.61s.
But she roared back with the second-best performance of the second run, laying down the gauntlet for the women coming after her. Mistakes ultimately cost Bassino and Italian compatriot Federica Brignone, with the two early leaders missing out on the podium.
Gut-Behrami’s combined time of 1:59.27 saw her beat New Zealand's Alice Robinson - who was third after the first run - by one-hundredth of a second.
Shiffrin's teammate AJ Hurt was third, 0.15 off the pace.
“I am just so happy about the win," Gut-Behrami said afterwards to FIS. "It was a tough race...the plan on the second run was just to attack. Everything I was missing on the first run, I wanted to improve on the second run.
“The course was nice. I enjoyed it, and I just wanted to give it all, and I am happy it worked out.”
Gut-Behrami leads Shiffrin by five points in the overall standings, and is now 135 points clear of Brignone in the race for the giant slalom Crystal Globe.
Some of the women will be back in action in the Soldeu slalom on Sunday.
Soldeu, FIS World Cup: Results from women's giant slalom, 10 February 2024 (top 10):
- Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) 1:59.27
- Alice Robinson (NZL) +0.01
- AJ Hurt (USA) +0.15
- Federica Brignone (ITA) +0.22
- Thea Louise Stjernesund (NOR) +0.29
- Marta Bassino (ITA) +0.32
- Mina Fuerst Holtmann (NOR) +0.41
- Ricarda Haaser (AUT) +0.51
- Sara Hector (SWE) +0.76
- Zrinka Ljutic (CRO) +0.99