Patrick Lang’s Column

17th December 2019

THE TOP LEADERS ARE READY FOR !

Less than a month before the return of the women World Cup tour at Sestriere, the leading champions showed that they are ready for some intense and exciting races in the coming weeks – at St. Moritz, ’s downhill Olympic Champion achieved an impressive performance in Super-G, a week after skiing out at Lake Louise. The 27-year-old athlete from celebrated her seventh World Cup victory in the Swiss event despite a difficult final part after losing her left pole, beating by a mere 1/100 of a second her teammate . USA’s star was a close 3rd.

It was Sofia’s first triumph in that specialty since her previous win at Are, , during the 2018 World Cup Finals. Last February, she captured a downhill at Crans-Montana a few weeks after her comeback from injury.

On Sunday, Slovakia’s World Champion Petra Vlhova enjoyed her first victory this season in the parallel race, a specialty that will also be organized in January on the challenging G. Agnelli course along the giant slalom.

Two days later, Brignone finally beat the rest of the field in a complicated giant slalom at Courchevel after collecting two 2nd places in recent weeks! This performance – her first World Cup win since her victory in combined at Crans-Montana last February – allowed Federica to take over the leader’s red bib in the giant slalom standings, certainly her main goal this winter.

The comeback atop of the podium of these exceptional characters is great news for the very interesting women’s circuit which already greatly benefited from the outstanding performances of other colorful world class leaders as , from , Mikaela Shiffrin, , Federica Brignone, Ester Ledecka from or ’s .

I greatly enjoy seeing so many international stars fighting for victories and podiums this winter!

The return of Sofia Goggia is particularly exciting for the tour since her appearance and her personality create great excitement around the women’s races. “I’m now looking forward for a consistent season,” she explained after her win at St.Moritz. “This victory is a strong boost for my confidence before the coming events,” added the Italian who is again fighting for a top-3 position in the overall World Cup standings. Two years ago, Sofia already captured the downhill crystal globe ahead of USA’s Skiing Legend .

At Courchevel, Sofia clocked the second faster time in the final run to reach a promising 16th final place despite her distant bib 31. In the prestigious French resort, the Italian team enjoyed its third season victory thanks to Brignone who showed great emotion during the award ceremony. “It’s a wonderful day for me, this success means a lot to me as I never had a good result here in past years, but today I finally found my best rhythm during both runs,” Federica told the press.

“I surely was lucky to win by 4/100 of a second but I have worked hard to move at that level this month and take all risks today,” the skier from Val d’Aosta also commented. “I feel really strong and motivated this winter as I was able to perfectly prepare myself during the off-season. For once I was not injured at the end of last season so I could perfectly organize my training camps. It’s for sure also a great advantage to be part of such a powerful Italian team. It strongly helps me to fully express my potential so far.”

Petra Vlhova, 4th at Courchevel, missed the podium by only a few hundredths. The Slovak ace, who will celebrate her 25th birthday at the beginning of the week leading to Sestriere’s event, is also looking forward to keep on improving her form after facing a series of annoying health problems since last summer. The champion from nearby Jasna, the largest in eastern part of her beautiful country, only a few hours’ drive away from its capital Bratislava, has been Shiffrin toughest rival in the technical events in recent months. Interestingly enough, both of them won all the World Cup slalom races since January 2017, after Sweden’s Olympic Champion Frida Hansdotter dominated the night-race at Flachau! Her win at St.Moritz definitely put her back on a very high level before the important races of Lienz, Zagreb and Flachau.

A very powerful athlete who also likes to compete in Super-G and combined, Petra won a total of ten World Cup races in different specialties including City Events and Parallel for a total of 28 podium finishes until Courchevel.

Very popular in her small country, Petra was only 17 when she scored her first World Cup points in slalom at Semmering, finishing 11th despite a very high start-number. Later on, she captured gold in slalom at in the first Winter Youth Olympics at Innsbruck in 2012 and the junior slalom title on home-ground at in February 2014 at Jasna.

The Swedish resort of Are brought her luck in December 2015 when she enjoyed her maiden World Cup victory a few years before claiming a total of three medals at the 2019 FIS Worlds in the Swedish resort – gold in giant slalom, silver in combined and bronze in slalom.

As many other top champions nowadays, Petra Vlhova is surrounded by her own staff of six to eight people who follow her around the globe, helping her to be perfectly prepared for her races. I believe it’s just a matter of time that she’ll also fight for the big crystal globe awarded at the end of the season for the overall World Cup champion!

Petra Vlhova surrounded by her own staff in St. Moritz