Alpine Skiingfaith 30 ... and praise
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On the day of the 30th birthday, we celebrate Federica Brignone by reliving her historic World Cup.
Tuesday 14 July 2020 14 minutes reading time
The dream of a life fulfilled over four months or a little more, from Soelden to that afternoon of a Wednesday of eve in Are, when the news arrived that the Swedish races would also have been canceled due to the Coronavirus emergency.
Federica Brignone turns 30 and we want to celebrate her by remembering what she did in a 2019/2020 season that led her to become the first Italian skier in history to conquer the absolute crystal ball ("seasoned" by the giant and combined cups and from the final podium also downhill, super-g and parallel).
A SUMMER WITHOUT HARMFUL
The debut is as usual in Soelden, on 26 October 2019, on that Rettenbach that four first saw Federica triumph, but also saw her on the second step of the podium in the previous edition of the Austrian giant. A fifth place will arrive, on the day of Alice Robinson's first triumph in her career, which does not worry the Valle d'Aosta much, aware of having finally been able to build a real base in the summer, without the injuries of the previous two years. And it will be seen especially in the fast disciplines ...
Four weeks after the opening, while Shiffrin wins for his part in Levi, Fede works at Copper Mountain on all disciplines and shows up in great shape in Killington, in the last weekend of November: the "Superstar" who he had seen it prevail the previous year, it rewards a great Marta Bassino at the first hurray in CdM, but Brignone is second by burning Shiffrin with a great 2nd heat. A fundamental result that, surprisingly, could even repeat the following day in the slalom, when in the middle of the race for the podium he came out in the 2nd heat.
It will be the only real stumbling block (except for Bansko's super-g) of a magical year, which restarts the following week from Lake Louise: Faith renounces descents (a choice that it will no longer do in the following months) , while in super-g she plays for the very first positions until the final sliding section that relegates her to 7th place. The return to Europe represents the first turning point: on Saturday 14 December the Sankt Moritz weekend begins and in spectacular and super-tough super-g, the blue still beats Shiffrin but, as in Killington, he has to settle for the second place behind to a teammate, in this case Sofia Goggia who surpasses it by only one cent.
Twenty-four hours later, the parallel slalom sees her close in 6th place, eliminated in the quarterfinals of a race that sees Mikaela Shiffrin give up to prepare for the Courchevel giant. Tuesday 17 here is the race in Haute Savoie which marks the first, well-deserved seal of the season by Federica Brignone: third after the first heat, just over a tenth from the surprise Mina Fuerst Holtmann and glued to Marta Bassino, the Aosta Valley unleashes in the second to burn the same Norwegian by only 4 cents. The French trip continues to Val d''Isère, but the weekend on the Oreiller-Killy, after only one downhill test, goes up in smoke due to the crazy weather that forces the cancellation of the races (downhill and combined). Mikaela Shiffrin, who had decided to stay at rest, can smile and prepare for the best of the two days at the end of the year in Lienz, where the World Cup leader stretches decisively by winning both giant and slalom on the "Schlossberg". In the first case, Fede is "only" fourth and also sees the specialty red bib in jeopardy, while in slalom he takes home a 13th place which is still useful (always starting with No. 31).
THE TURN IN JANUARY
Between the slaloms of Zagreb and Flachau, which see Vlhova beat Shiffrin twice, while Brignone decides to focus on the other disciplines, the first of the key weekends for Federica is staged. This is the one in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, on 11-12 January 2020, with Fede placing 17th downhill, but placing the second hit in the Alpine combined, resisting the return of Holdener after a great super-g, in which both Vlhova and Shiffrin derailed.
And the following week, here is the magical environment of Sestriere to accompany another triumph, the second in giant, at the end of a crazy race on Kandahar G.A. Agnelli, seeing that the Italian (in the lead already halfway through the race) wins ex-aequo with Petra Vlhova and with Mikaela Shiffrin third, just one hundredths from the two great rivals. The World Cup still seems open, all the more after the parallel giant of the following day that sees the French Direz cheer (amid a thousand controversies for the discrepancy between the two tracks) and Brignone fourth, losing the "final" for 3rd place against Bassino, but with some points earned on Vlhova and Shiffrin, you leave early.
The long weekend of Bansko, however, reports the winner of the three previous World Cups on the run: Mikaela prevails both in the first descent on Friday and in the Sunday super-g, instead closing fourth in the second descent, on that Saturday 25 January which will enter history for the blue hat-trick which sees Elena Curtoni preceding Bassino and, in fact, Brignone. Faith, already second on the previous day behind Shiffrin in the No. 1 descent, collects less than what was sown on the Bulgarian track, ideal for its characteristics, given that in super-G it stages a great duel with the American, but the impact violent with a door one step away from the finish line, deprives her of a possible victory.
We then go to Rosa Khutor for another weekend dedicated to speed, but the crazy weather in the Russian resort leads to canceling all the tests and the same descent on Saturday, with only the Sunday super-g on the calendar: and it is a blue triumph, with Federica's seasonal poker bending Sofia Goggia by a couple of tenths, shortening the gap from Shiffrin who had chosen to avoid the trip by 100 points. Just in those hours, the champion of Colorado will receive the terrible news of his father's death, never returning to the race until Are, when the expected return has been stopped by the pandemic and therefore by the cancellation of the last races.
Federica cannot know when and if Mikaela will return to the race, also there is a Vlhova more and more fit also in speed: you have to make heavy points in all the races and Brignone does not miss a beat. In Garmisch, in a very hard weekend on a very difficult track like the "Kandahar", only a sensational Rebensburg beats it downhill, while in super-g this time something is missing from a Faith forced to settle for fifth place, which will result however far from a bad result ...
In Kranjska Gora, however, the disappointment for the 8th place in giant is certainly palpable, also because it is followed by the slalom exit of the following day, while Shiffrin remains at the top of the cup and Vlhova is dangerously approaching the second place. Faith had not been very well before the weekend on the "Podkoren", but completely recovered towards the key triptych of Crans-Montana, where it jumps to the top of the general classification. First bringing home a 7th and a 4th place in the two descents won by Lara Gut-Behrami, then winning the Alpine combined that will represent the race of truth, since Vlhova goes out in slalom when the success with the same Faith was about to be played. on the wool thread, after a super-g in which the Slovak had limited the damage from a wild Brignone.
The last race of the year will be that of February 29 (with the combined one of the following day canceled due to a heavy snowfall), right at home in the snow of La Thuile. The super-g on the "3 Franco Berthod" sees Nina Ortlieb conquering the first race of her career in the World Cup, Federica is second only one hundredth from the Austrian and can still celebrate, gaining another 30 points on Vlhova. Then what we know will happen, with the races in Ofterschwang, Are and Cortina canceled entirely. And on March 11, at the time of a snack at the hotel on the day before the parallel slalom scheduled in Sweden, the official performance of a historic cup will arrive.
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