Shiffrin third again in St. Moritz super-G

Mikaela Shiffrin of Edwards on Sunday finished on the podium in a World Cup super-G in St. Moritz for the second straight day, duplicating her performance from Saturday in a speed discipline she’s had little training in over the past two seasons.

Federica Brignone of Italy won the race with a time of 57.81 seconds, Elana Curtoni of Italy was second with a time of 57.92, and Shiffrin was third — .43 seconds back of Brignone at 58.24.

While Shiffrin has won before in super-G, it’s not in her technical comfort zone of slalom and giant slalom. Therefore, the points (60 for finishing third) are particularly valuable as she tries to match former Vail resident Lindsey Vonn’s American record of four overall World Cup titles.

Shiffrin now leads that chase with 525 points.

Sunday’s course was delayed and then shortened due to high winds, making it run less than a minute and adding technical challenges in difficult conditions.

Saturday’s winner, Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, crashed through two layers of protective fencing near the bottom of the course but was not seriously injured. Shiffrin nearly missed the same gate but managed to saver her run.

Eleven of the 56 starters on Sunday did not finish.

Saturday’s runner-up, Lake Louise triple winner Sofia Goggia, was sixth.

Brignone’s win landed her the Italian women’s record for the most career victories, surpassing the great Deborah Compagnoni with 17 wins.

The women’s circuit now moves to Val d’Isere, France for a downhill and super-G, followed by two GS races the following weekend in Courchevel, France before the holiday break.

Here’s the full press release from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team:

Mikaela Shiffrin scored her second super-G podium in two days in St. Moritz, taking third place on Sunday. Breezy Johnson also skied into the points, finishing 24th.

The Italians filled the rest of the FIS World Cup super-G podium, with Federica Brignone and Elena Curtoni going one-two. Alice Robinson, the young upstart from New Zealand, was fourth. Notably missing from the podium was Lara Gut of Switzerland, who was ahead in the splits on her run, but went too straight and crashed hard through two layers of fencing in a difficult compression. After a few tense minutes, she got up and skied to the finish full of cheering Swiss fans. 

While the sun came out for Sunday’s super-G after a dark day on Saturday, the conditions remained challenging with whipping winds blowing the women around the terrain-heavy course. The gusts were too strong, in fact, that the start had to be moved down to the reserve start and the race was delayed 40 minutes. “It was a bit tricky today!” said Shiffrin. “Especially with some wind, you get these pushes from behind and you speed up like crazy and it’s a little unexpected… I just tried to push my line and trust it and make good turns and stand strong on my skis.”

Shiffrin also battled nerves—wearing bib two meant she didn’t get much of a course report—but she used her knowledge of the terrain from a long course inspection and the feeling from her skis to ski intelligently down the course. The race gave her a second super-G podium in two days (translating to 120 more valuable points in the overall standings), and her seventh career World Cup super-G podium in only 18 starts. Four of those podiums have been in St. Moritz.   

Breezy Johnson also scored points for the second time in the weekend, taking 24th. Jackie Wiles finished 39th, Nina O’Brien 40th, and Tricia Mangan 43rd. AJ Hurt, Isabella Wright, and Keely Cashman did not finish, but all three are thankfully OK. 

Shiffrin leads the overall World Cup standings, with 525 points ahead of Italy’s Sofia Goggia (435), and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova—who has opted to focus on tech events this year (340). Johnson is currently sitting in sixth in the standings, with 213 points. 

The women’s speed team next heads to Val d’Isere, France for a downhill and super-G December 18-19, while the tech team will train for two giant slalom races in Courchevel, France December 21-22.

RESULTS
Women’s super-G

STANDINGS
Women’s World Cup overall
Women’s World Cup super-G

HOW TO WATCH
*ALL TIMES EST.

4:30 p.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Women’s Super-G – same-day broadcast, St. Mortiz, SUI, Broadcast NBCSN

Current television broadcast and streaming schedules for all sports are available here. For more information on how to watch broadcasts and streaming, visit our full “how to watch” breakdown.