Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami gets 1st World Cup win of season. Lindsey Vonn finishes 13th

“It’s a challenging slope, it’s not the conditions where I ski the best. It was a little bit slippery, a little bit soft. Sometimes when you don’t have the perfect conditions for yourself, you stop thinking.”

The worlds take place in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria on Feb. 4-16. The first individual race is the women’s super-G on Feb. 6.

The technically outstanding Gut-Behrami was especially clean in a passage that caused many racers problems — a jump followed by a sharp turn left.

She was 0.35 seconds faster than Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway, who captured her first of eight career podiums at a super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen four years ago.

Federica Brignone was three-hundredths further back in third, a day after the Italian won the downhill on the same hill.

Sofia Goggia, who was runner-up to Brignone in Saturday’s race, placed fourth, ahead of teammates Laura Pirovano and Marta Bassino, as the Italian team finished with four racers in the top six.

Keely Cashman shared sixth place with Bassino for the American’s career-best result, and it came on a course where she suffered traumatic brain and knee injuries in a horrific downhill crash in 2021.

“I know it’s four years ago but it’s not something you really get over that quickly,” said Cashman, who had one previous top 10 result in 68 World Cup starts.

“To start today with a new mindset was something I was really trying to do, and have my personal best in some place like Garmisch… feels really good.”

Vonn finished 1.4 seconds off the pace in 13th, just behind her American teammate Lauren Macuga, after failing to finish her previous two races. The American standout skied out of Saturday’s downhill when she missed a gate, but avoided falling.

Vonn returned to ski racing in December after nearly six years of retirement with a new titanium knee.

Last week, Vonn told The Associated Press that she plans to retire again after next year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Last year, Gut-Behrami overtook leader Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall standings in the last two months of the season when the American five-time champion was out nursing a knee injury.

The Swiss skier then had a slow start to the new campaign after missing the season-opening race in October. However, the defending overall champion then racked up three second places in Super-G before winning Sunday.

“It’s been a weird start of the season, obviously I was struggling a little bit,” Gut-Behrami said. “I had to find the confidence back, the way to push on the skis again.”

Gut-Behrami has now won at least one World Cup race in 11 of the past 12 seasons, with 2018-19 the only exception. She closed the gap to leader Brignone in the overall season standings to 70 points.

Shiffrin has been out for two months with an abdominal injury that required surgery, but the American is expected to race again in a night slalom in France on Thursday, the final women’s race before the worlds.

The start of Sunday’s race was delayed for 15 minutes as organizers needed more time to prepare the course after overnight snowfall and rain in the hours leading up to the race.

Ariane Raedler had a nasty tumble when she came off the course and lost balance over a patch of softer snow, but the Austrian got up quickly and appeared to have avoided injury.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/alpine-skiing

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami gets 1st World Cup win of season. Lindsey Vonn finishes 13th

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