The favorites for the combined and parallel World Cups: Shiffrin and Vlhova still women to beat

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Ninth and penultimate meeting to analyze, discipline by discipline, the next season of the white circus with our "5 + 5".

Monday 21 October 2019 10 minutes reading time

The Women's World Cup will also pass for the seven races scheduled between combined (4 tests) and parallel (3), where heavy points will be awarded for the general. Even in these two specialties, however, the woman to beat is still Mikaela Shiffrin, closely followed by Petra Vlhova and Wendy Holdener, practically in both cases. Let's analyze the reasons, remembering that the parallel crystal ball will be assigned for the first time. Tuesday evening the last appointment with the men expected in these two specialties. COMBINED - MIKAELA THE REFERENCE, WENDY THE MOST TITLE 1. Mikaela Shiffrin: she has played very few in her career, but in the season without big events and with the combination of the slalom race to the super-g, it is practically certain that Mikaela disputed all the combined scheduled, starting clearly which first favored. He won only once in the World Cup, in February 2017 in Crans Montana, but previously only played that of Soldeu (concluding eighth) and, subsequently, that of the PyeongChang 2018 Games which represented a great disappointment for her, silver behind an amazing Michelle Gisin. At the World Championships in Are, after winning gold in the super-g, everyone asked her to participate in the attempt to attack all the golds, but the star of Colorado maintained the established schedule and did not start. This year, in the Cup, it will be another story. 2.Wendy Holdener: at the level of medals won in the specialty, the 26-year-old Swiss is certainly the most titled in circulation, with the last two world titles taken home (both "sprinted" in front of Gisin and Vlhova), the Olympic bronze medalist PyeongChang, 2 World Cups (2016 and 2018) and two victories in the maximum circuit, both won in Lenzerheide. In the last combined race, that is the only CDM of last season, he finished third in Crans Montana, beaten by Brignone and Remme. 3. Federica Brignone: she has won three times in her career (while only touching on the medals between the World Cup and the Olympics), again in Crans Montana, which has now become the "Brignone fief", given that the Valdostana has hit the Canton of Valais consecutively since 2017 to 2019. Also this year there will be a combined, just the previous week compared to the one in "his" La Thuile, the fourth and final that will probably decide the fight for the crystal ball. With all the races combined with the super-g, Fede must believe it: it can also fight for this goal. 4.Petra Vlhova: it is a specialty that has entered only in the last year and a half, finishing fifth in PyeongChang and on the podium at the World Championships in Are, where it was silver for only 3 cents from the winner Wendy Holdener. In the World Cup he participated in only one test, in March 2018 in Crans Montana, finishing immediately on the podium (third); the potential for victory there is everything, even more so (even more than for Shiffrin, already very competitive downhill) with the super-g as the fast discipline chosen by the FIS. 5. Michelle Gisin: is the current Olympic champion (vice world champion in Sankt Moritz 2017, without being able to defend that medal in Are 2019) and one of the most experienced women, since she was "born" with the combined blood. He has "only" two podiums in the World Cup, between Val d''Isere 2016 and Crans Montana 2018, his last combined race with second place just 3 cents from Federica Brignone. In his case, the super-g / slalom combination could be a slight disadvantage given its superior downhill quality compared to almost all rivals. PARALLEL - WHICH CHALLENGES BETWEEN THE US AND SLOVAK 1. Mikaela Shiffrin: since the relaunch wanted by the FIS for this specialty, it is clearly the multi-winner in business with five successes, all obtained with the format of the parallel city event / slalom which, next season, will be staged in Sankt Moritz (where Mikaela won) in December 2018) and Are. In the middle, there will be the novelty of the giant parallel to Sestriere, but the values should not vary much and, even in that case, the formidable American will be the absolute reference. 2.Petra Vlhova: the Slovak was the only one able to beat Shiffrin in direct confrontation, at the end of a beautiful duel in the city event of Oslo last January 1st. It was his only seal in parallel, but the results say that she will be the main antagonist of the US also in this specialty, since she was beaten only in the final by the great rival, both in Courchevel 2017 and in Sankt Moritz 2018, taking another podium (3rd place) in Stockholm. 3.Wendy Holdener: won once in the Cup (and it was the first of her three victories in the maximum circuit), in February 2016 in Stockholm, winning another four podiums in the specialty. In practice, it did not arrive in the semifinals only in Stockholm in 2017 and 2019. A guarantee, can certainly be played for the success in the specialty CdM. 4.Anna Swenn Larsson: if it hadn't gone very well in parallel slalom between 2017 and 2018, in Courchevel and Sankt Moritz, in the two city events of last season in Oslo and Stockholm, the Swede did very well with a 4th and a 3rd place. Due to its characteristics, it could suffer from the parallel giant of Sestriere and the atypical one of Sankt Moritz, while it will compete at home in the last test of Are, which replaces Stockholm. 5. Cristina Ackermann: fifth in Stockholm in January 2018, seventh in Oslo last January, then the first podium on the Swedish slope in February, a mockery of the final against Shiffrin. The German is the classic slalomist who disengages well in this specialty, even if it is worth the speech made for Swenn Larsson on the variety of race tracks that could lead her to not always be protagonist for the podium.

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