Alpine Skiingfemale world cup
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The Valle d'Aosta "must" play for the top 3 in a World Cup dominated by Shiffrin. The calendar to calibrate to perfection and the enormous space that can be found among the rapid gates ...
Wednesday 11 December 2019 7 minutes reading time
It has not been too long since the last time of an Italian on the final podium of the general classification of the Women's World Cup, which no blue has ever won in over half a century of history, given that at the end of the 2016/17 season, Sofia Goggia finished in third place behind Mikaela Shiffrin, at her first absolute crystal ball, and Ilka Stuhec, overtaking the injured Lara Gut (at the time not yet ... Behrami) in the final.
And in fifth place, at 302 points from his teammate, Federica Brignone finished her best year in terms of final placement; here, the Valdostana can think of raising the bar in a positive way this year, with the 5th place of Soelden followed by the second in the giant of Killington and by the 7th in the super-g of Lake Louise, after having left in the slalom in Vermont.
If Mikaela Shiffrin can not be approached in any way, without many rounds of words, here is that the Aosta Valley can instead become the first pursuer of the US, for its completeness, confidence and the condition already shown after a summer-autumn finally without physical problems, and also for a competition with some problems ...
What do you need to get on one of those three steps, but at the same time fight for the declared goal of the season, or the victory of the giant World Cup? Certainly a calendar calibrated to perfection, with some renunciations but also some "risk" to take; Faith missed the two descents of Lake Louise, and then played a podium super-g until the final stretch, in which he lost a lot as per his characteristics. A choice that is all there, given that downhill will have to sacrifice something, eliminating the effort of testing.
In super-g and in giant there is little to say, the 29 year-old of La Salle is ready to win in almost any condition, the same goes for the combined (four ...), even if Shiffrin this year will almost always be there. Here, a part of the destiny of Faith could pass from the slalom: at Killington, he showed he could even play for a place close to the podium, with a top five trend in the 2nd run before going out. A specialty that will come in handy also in combination and that comes naturally to her, with a much more central structure (as Paolo De Chiesa analyzed in a video that appeared right on neveitalia.it) and that space, at the level of opponents, which it can be wide open in an obvious way.
The level is not very high and Brignone can think of fighting, starting at least with the 16 compared to the number 31, constantly for the first 10 positions; there are nine specialty races (parallel slalom excluded, but that's another story), two have gone and the next opportunity will happen in Lienz, in a crucial weekend as the fourth seasonal giant will be staged the previous day (December 28), after that of 17 in Courchevel.
Subsequently, Federica should renounce the trials of Zagreb and Flachau, to then dispute all the others. And if we consider that from Michelle Gisin disappointing in speed to Lake Louise, to the physical problems of Petra Vlhova and Wendy Holdener, who have already pierced a slalom apiece (in a specialty where Slovak and Swiss are almost always podiums at shoulders or with Shiffrin), the competition may not reach very high scores, Federica has great possibilities, even more on paper than those of Sofia Goggia, certainly less competitive than the Valle d'Aosta between combined and giant (and probably also in parallel, if both will play them all three), so with only two specialties to really do heavy points.
Next weekend in Sankt Moritz, Brignone will throw himself into an ideal super-g for his characteristics, technician from beginning to end and in which he touched on the enterprise two years ago, concluding in fourth place. Then the focus will be on the Courchevel giant and the combined Val d''Isère: without making too many calculations, but aware of being able to gather a lot from this season.
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