Brignone closes in on overall World Cup title with super-G victory near her hometown

The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 8:43 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Federica Brignone each but locked up the women's wide World Cup rubric by winning a super-G connected Friday successful La Thuile, Italy, giving the Italian a near-insurmountable pb successful the play standings.

Brignone extended her vantage implicit her lone remaining challenger, defending champion Lara Gut-Behrami, to 382 points with 4 races near astatine the World Cup finals successful Sun Valley, Idaho.

A contention triumph is worthy 100 points, but Gut-Behrami usually doesn't vie successful slalom. Skipping that lawsuit astatine the finals would permission the Swiss standout with lone 3 races, not capable to beryllium capable to adjacent the gap.

"It's crazy, and doing it here, astatine home, it's adjacent much crazy," Brignone said aft winning the contention adjacent to her Italian hometown successful the Aosta Valley. "This twelvemonth it was 1 of my biggest dreams, to triumph present successful La Thuile, and I couldn't decorativeness my vocation without it. So, I'm truly proud."

Brignone antecedently won the large Crystal Globe successful 2020, erstwhile she overtook five-time champion Mikaela Shiffrin connected apical of the standings successful the last weeks of the play erstwhile the American took a interruption from racing aft the decease of her father.

"I wanted to redo it, and retry it. It was 1 of my dreams arsenic a kid," Brignone said.

Smallest borderline possible

On Friday, Brignone edged her teammate Sofia Goggia for triumph successful the penultimate super-G of the season.

"I wanted it truthful much, to spot the greenish airy successful beforehand of my radical here," Brignone said. "It's conscionable crazy, it's truly thing really, truly big."

Brignone won by the smallest borderline imaginable aft Goggia led passim her tally but mislaid a tenth of 2nd successful the last conception to decorativeness 0.01 behind.

Romane Miradoli came 0.05 down successful 3rd for the French skier's archetypal podium effect successful much than a year.

Gut-Behrami shared the 4th spot with her Swiss teammate Corinne Suter, some trailing Brignone by 0.35 seconds.

Canada's Val Grenier was 0.66 down Brignone to decorativeness successful eighth place.

The effect acceptable up a tense conflict for the super-G play title, with Brignone present 5 points up of Gut-Behrami, with lone the March 23 contention astatine the finals remaining.

Emma Aicher, who won Thursday's super-G, seemed connected people to repetition that triumph but the German prodigy skied retired of the people halfway done her tally erstwhile she was starring Brignone by astir three-tenths of a second.

'A truly up-and-down season'

Lindsey Vonn was the champion American finisher successful 13th, a time aft she fell and slid done a gross aboriginal successful Thursday's contention but remained unhurt.

Vonn, who has qualified for the downhill and super-G astatine the finals, called her comeback astatine property 40 aft six years distant from the circuit "a truly up-and-down season" successful which she recorded 2 top-10 results from 12 starts.

"With super-G, I consciousness similar it's my champion discipline, I'm skiing the champion but I'm truly inconsistent," the erstwhile four-time wide champion said. "I've been changing my worldly beauteous overmuch each run, each race, sometimes it's better, sometimes it's not. I conscionable request to find the balance."

Vonn said successful AP interrogation successful January she planned to contention 1 much play and vie astatine the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics earlier retiring again.

"I conscionable request grooming and time, adjacent twelvemonth is my main goal," she said. "I deliberation I did precisely what I needed to bash this year, get a bully starting fig and springiness maine a bully accidental for adjacent twelvemonth to bash well."

Her teammate Lauren Macuga, the bronze medallist from past month's satellite championships, was 19th.