Malorie Blanc scored her first World Cup win in the Super-G on Saturday in Crans-Montana, ahead of Sofia Goggia and Breezy Johnson. The day earlier, downhill race was cancelled after crashes of Lindsey Vonn, Marte Monsen and Nina Ortlieb.
by Maciej Jackiewicz
Friday – Downhill
The sixth downhill of the season started on Friday. The first rider, Nina Ortlieb, suffered a big crash that prompted a long break in the race. In the same place, the downhill World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn also crashed and as a result she was transported to the hospital by a helicopter. The last very tight corner was the place where Marte Monsen went out of the course to end up in the safety nets. It is not yet known if Vonn and Monsen will be able to compete in the Olympics. The race was cancelled after the crash of Vonn. According to FIS it was cancelled because of difficult conditions, but it is clear that the course had turns too slow for it to being downhill, especially at the bottom part.
Saturday – Super-G
After the cancellation of the downhill on Friday, the best female skiers took on the Mont Lachaux course on Saturday to compete in the Super-G. The first skier on the course was Ariane Rädler of Austria, who set a 1:17.95 time. She was quickly outpaced by Roberta Melesi with Bib 2, that set a time 0.19-second faster. A lot of good skiers that started after Melesi could not match her time in the first part of the course. Therefore, the Italian could have started thinking about her first ever podium in the World Cup.
Melesi’s compatriot, Elena Curtoni did not finish the Super-G. Same goes for Emma Aicher, who had a fantastic start, also did not reach the finish line. But after a long wait, it was the Super-G World Cup leader to beat Melesi for first. Sofia Goggia set a time 0.24-second faster than her teammate’s. At this point, most of the people watching thought that it was Goggia that would win the race, but a big Swiss surprise came with Bib 17. Malorie Blanc was fast throughout the whole course, and at the line she won over Goggia by 0.18 seconds, scoring her first-ever World Cup win.
At that point, the podium was composed of Blanc, Goggia and Melesi, but we had one more change in the top three before the end. Breezy Johnson, who started with Bib 29, got a very good run through the Mont Lachaux course and in the end she was classified in third, just 0.06 seconds ahead of Melesi, denying her the chance to score her first podium.
Results
| Session | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Full results |
| Downhill | Cancelled | |||
| Super-G | Malorie Blanc, 1:17.34 | Sofia Goggia, +0.18s | Breezy Johnson, +0.36s | Here |
What’s next?
After an intense month the World Cup takes a break, as the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina arrive in February. The speed events will take place in Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the host cities of the Olympics. The downhill specialists will fight for the medals on 8 February, while the Super-G stars will battle for the top three positions four days later. Meanwhile, on 10 February some of the downhill skiers will take part in the team combined event, alongside their slalom teammates.
Header photo credit: World Cup Sankt Moritz
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