Following her victory in the Downhill in Crans-Montana on Friday and third place in the Downhill on Saturday, Lara Gut-Behrami is now 205 points in front of Mikaela Shiffrin in the World Cup.
The Swiss athlete also takes over the red jersey in the Downhill. Cornelia Hütter finishes in second place on Friday.
Stephanie Venier celebrates her first Super-G victory on Sunday. Vincent Kriechmayr is delighted with his second win of the season in the Super-G in Kvitfjell on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Austrian athlete finishes second in the Downhill to claim his first podium in this discipline this season.
“This was a great weekend for Lara Gut-Behrami. These were her home races, which makes her results all the more special.
She is skiing at a really excellent level,” says HEAD Racing Director Rainer Salzgeber. “We are taking it one event at a time. If we win a race, that’s perfect, of course. Stephanie Venier’s victory was very special.
It was a particularly technical course. The way she skied it was brilliant. It was also a really good weekend for the men’s team.
Upcoming athletes like Franjo von Allmen certainly showed what they can do. Guglielmo Bosca was incredibly fast in the Super-G.
The whole team enjoyed an excellent weekend. Vincent Kriechmayr’s first and second places were outstanding. That’s great for him, and for our Austrian ski squad too.”
First victory this season in the Downhill.
The opening event in Crans-Montana went perfectly for Lara Gut-Behrami. The Swiss athlete won the first Downhill competition on her home course in front of HEAD colleague Cornelia Hütter.
It was the 32-year-old’s 44th World Cup victory, her seventh this season and her first this season in the Downhill.
This means that Lara Gut-Behrami is now top of the leaderboard in three disciplines for the 2023/24 season – Downhill, Super-G and Giant Slalom.
“I attacked as hard as I could and made sure I was in charge of my skis. There were a couple of tricky situations, however, and I am not an expert on soft snow.
I like it when I can push the skis even further, and that wasn’t possible here. My focus is on skiing well and crossing the finish line uninjured,” is how Lara Gut-Behrami analysed her performance at the finish.
Second place feels like a victory
Second place felt like a victory for Cornelia Hütter. The Austrian athlete had a serious fall in Crans-Montana two years ago, so the 31-year-old was all the more delighted to podium in Switzerland this time.
“Two years ago, it looked like my career was pretty much over here, because things were much tougher than had reckoned with.
I’ve now drawn a line under that, but I still felt a bit queasy the first time we inspected the run,” said Cornelia Hütter.
The HEAD Worldcup Rebels also performed superbly as a team – with Laura Pirovano from Italy finishing in fourth place, Ariane Rädler from Austria eighth, Stephanie Venier from Austria tenth, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie from Norway eleventh, Ragnhild Mowinckel from Norway twelfth, and Laura Gauche from France in 14th place, no fewer than eight HEAD athletes finished in the top 15.
Lara Gut-Behrami also leads the World Cup Downhill ranking
In the second Downhill event in Crans-Montana on Friday, Lara Gut-Behrami podiumed again, this time in third place, which saw the Swiss athlete take the lead in the Downhill as well.
The HEAD Worldcup Rebels also proved their team strength in this race with another seven athletes in the top 15: Laura Pirovano finished fifth, Ariane Rädler sixth, Ragnhild Mowinckel seventh, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie eighth, Laura Gauche ninth and Cornelia Hütter and Teresa Runggaldier eleventh.
This is the best World Cup result so far for Teresa Runggaldier from Italy; her previous personal best was 20th place in the Downhill in Cortina in 2024.
First Super-G victory for Stephanie Venier
The weekend in Crans-Montana was rounded off with a Super-G on Sunday, in which Stephanie Venier celebrated her first victory in this discipline.
This is the third World Cup victory for the Austrian athlete following her two Downhill victories in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2019 and Cortina in 2024.
In the Super-G, the 30-year-old has so far notched up three-second places and one-third place.
“I’m highly satisfied with my performance. The way the course was set was tricky and you needed to ski tactically.
It was a close race and I couldn’t afford to make a mistake. The run was exciting from top to bottom.
I managed to keep my calm after the Downhill events, kept working and am now satisfied,” explained Stephanie Venier.
Fifth place went to Cornelia Hütter, sixth place to Lara Gut-Behrami, seventh place to Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, tenth place to Laura Gauche, eleventh place to Laura Pirovano and twelfth place to Ariane Rädler.
That was sufficient for Lara Gut-Behrami to defend her red jersey in the Super-G World Cup – five points ahead of Cornelia Hütter.
Second victory this season for Vincent Kriechmayr
Vincent Kriechmayr is delighted with his 18th World Cup victory in the Super-G in Kvitfjell on Sunday.
This is the Austrian athlete’s ninth victory in this discipline and his second this season, following his win in the Super-G in Val Gardena in December.
“I skied near the limit on the lower section of the run. I’m very pleased because I didn’t think it was going to work out after the mistake I made.
Finishing in second place the day before gave me confidence, and that’s the decisive factor. After the classic races, I said to myself it’s all or nothing.
And I’m making that work very well,” said the 32-year-old happily. Sixth place went to Guglielmo Bosca from Italy, eleventh place to Ryan Cochran-Siegle from the USA and 15th place to Stefan Babinsky from Austria.
Just missed victory in the Downhill
Following his victory in the Super-G in Val Gardena in December, Vincent Kriechmayr has now also podiumed for the first time this season in the Downhill in Kvitfjell.
The Austrian athlete finished in second place, just missing the number one slot by eight-hundredths of a second.
“It was a very good run. I tried to ski with feeling and I managed that well. It was one of my better runs this year,” says Vincent Kriechmayr.
Swiss athlete Franjo von Allmen put in an excellent performance once again by finishing fifth with bib number 28.
Ryan Cochran-Siegle was seventh, Nils Alphand from France was 13th and Guglielmo Bosca finished in 14th place.