Mikaela Shiffrin misses out on podium as Cornelia Hütter claims Kvitfjell Super G by narrowest margin
The Austrian beat new Super G leader Curtoni by just 0.01 seconds, while Shiffrin has two more chances to equal or break Stenmark's record this weekend.
Alpine Skiing
Cornelia Hütter gave Austria the first win of the season in the women's Alpine Ski World Cup by claiming the Super G in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Friday (3 March).
Just weeks after winning bronze at the 2023 World championships, the 30-year-old Styrian pipped provisional leader Elena Curtoni of Italy by just 1 hundredth of a second, crossing the finish line in 1 minute 26.83 seconds.
"It's really amazing, I had really a high bib (number) 14, so at the finish you can see if the time was good or not, so it was really nice to finish and have a green light. I had mixed feelings from my run, but it was a good combination of aggressive skiing and also having good feelings in the turns," Hütter told Eurosport-Discovery after the race.
Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland rounded off the podium, 0.12 seconds from the winner.
Mikaela Shiffrin finished in fourth (0.04 seconds off the podium) meaning her quest to go level with Ingemar Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup wins will have to wait.
"Obviously it's so tight the margin between the top 10 (the top 15 were separated by less than a second) so I'll analyse the video to see if I can squeeze a bit more speed out of it, but I'm not going to go overboard with it because it can also backfire. I felt very solid with my skiing and I'll just try to take that into the next days." the 27-year-old said on Eurosport.
Reigning world champion Marta Bassino didn't take part in the event after returning to Italy for personal reasons.
Following today's second place, Curtoni tops the Super G standings with 310 points ahead of Gut-Behrami (302) and Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel (272), who came in 12th in Kvitfjell.
Gut-Behrami overtook Petra Vlhova in the overall rankings and is now second with 986 points, behind leader Shiffrin (1747): the double Olympic champion could clinch her fifth big crystal globe this weekend. That would put her second on the all-time winner's list behind Austria's Annemarie Moser-Pröll, who has six titles to her name.
The Women's World Cup resumes on Saturday with a downhill race, followed by another Super G on Sunday.
Results Super-G in Kvitfjell Women's World Cup on 3 March 2023 (top 10)
- 1. Cornelia Hütter (AUT) 1:26.83
- 2. Elena Curtoni (ITA) +0.01
- 3. Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) +0.12
- 4. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) +0.16
- 5. Federica Brignone (ITA) +0.29
- 6. Tessa Worley (FRA) +0.34
- 7. Franziska Gritsch (AUT) +0.50
- 8. Mirjam Puchner (AUT) +0.62
- 9. = Stephanie Venier (AUT), Corinne Suter (SUI) +0.80
World Cup Super-G standing after Kvitfjell Super G on 3 March 2023
- Elena Curtoni (ITA) 310 pts.
- Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) 302
- Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR) 272