Alpine Skiingwomen's world cup
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On Saturday the first race of the 2021/22 World Cup: Shiffrin, Brignone and Worley to play for a very open opening. You are favorites and ... all of them have already won on the Rettenbach!
Wednesday 20 October 2021 15 minutes reading time
Soelden -3. The female giant that will inaugurate the new World Cup season on Saturday morning is getting closer and closer.
On the Rettenbach the spectacle will be absolute and there are many stars expected for a first race uncertain in the prediction, but at an exceptional level if we think of the names that should be at stake for the success on the Austrian glacier. We indicate three in pole position, three others just behind but, even in this case, athletes who have already won in the debut giant in the past.
BASSINO, ROBINSON, GUT-BEHRAMI: 5 stars
Marta Bassino is the last winner on Rettenbach, where she also conquered the first podium in CdM, third in 2016, and dominated the last giant season with 4 successes and the specialty cup. This is enough to put it at the top of the predictions, as well as a smooth preparation for the whole summer-autumn period.
The level, however, will be very high and the main rivals all seem in great shape, net of the unknowns of the "first" that we will really discover only on Saturday in the race. This is why Alice Robinson, who triumphed in Soelden in 2019 by burning Shiffrin, and closed last year with a great test in Jasna (2nd by a whisker) and winning at the Lenzerheide finals, can only consider herself at least on par. of Cuneo, even if the presence or not of Michelle Gisin could be important for the New Zealander, who would be in the first sub-group of 7 without the Swiss on the track.
The only one of the current protagonists who has won twice in the opening is Lara Gut-Behrami (2013 and 2016), at the same time reigning world champion and given in great shape in training. The Ticino is capable of anything and must be placed in the front row in the prediction.
BRIGNONE, SHIFFRIN, WORLEY: 4 stars
Federica Brignone, Mikaela Shiffrin, Tessa Worley.
They are the co-favorites of this first seasonal giant, far from far from Bassino, Robinson and Gut-Behrami.
Let's start from the Aosta Valley, which in Soelden achieved its first success in the World Cup six years ago. Fede is fine, she herself has defined her physical condition "perhaps the best of her career", with an ad hoc preparation and detached from the other two members of the now former elite group, namely Bassino and Goggia. A choice that will pay off? We will understand this over the course of the season, sure that the feeling with Rettenbach is exceptional for the winner of the 2019/20 World Cup, also second in 2018 behind Worley and last year, bent by only 14 cents from "Bax".
Everyone is afraid, and God forbid, a Mikaela Shiffrin who was able to prepare this first race in the best way possible, after the vicissitudes of 2020 that led her to skip the same opening on Rettenbach, where the champion of Eagle won " solo ”in 2014, among other things ex-aequo with Anna Veith (at the time Fenninger). Third and second the last two times in Soelden, Mikaela is given in excellent condition and, after having found the best sensations especially in the first giant heats of last season, now she will have to complete the puzzle to return to win with continuity also in this discipline, where in the past season she only won in the second round of Courchevel.
Then here is Tessa Worley, who Rettenbach tamed her in 2018 and loves the central wall of a track where she also finished second in 2017 and third in 2019. Now the transalpine champion is really doing well on a physical level, she was able to perform a complete preparation and, on a single race, he can beat all of them as a teacher of the giant he is.
VLHOVA, GOGGIA, HROVAT, LIENSBERGER AND ... GISIN?
We choose five athletes at an altitude of 3 stars.
Petra Vlhova showed a noticeable decline in giant numbers from January until the end of last season, with the exception of the home game in Jasna, which was instrumental in the final triumph in the World Cup. Last year he was frightened in the 2nd heat, climbing up to third place, but he will have to demonstrate (even with the change of the technical guide, from Magoni to Pini) that he has found confidence in this discipline.
Sofia Goggia likes the Rettenbach, also and above all for that final stretch where she has always made the difference, going to collect a 6th place in the last edition. The Bergamo-based woman says she has found, at least in part, that feeling that brought her five times to the podium, in addition to the world bronze of Sankt Moritz 2017, among the wide doors (even if the last top 3 dates back to almost 4 Years ago). Will it be enough to fight for a top five? Difficult, but woe to underestimate it ...
Meta Hrovat closed the complicated 2020/21 season very well, climbing on the podium in Lenzerheide, working hard and well in the summer with Livio Magoni. Could make the coup, with a few more chances, probably, compared to Katharina Liensberger and Michelle Gisin. The Austrian won an amazing world bronze, just 9 cents from the title before dominating in slalom, but more generally she now has a different awareness than in the past after what "combined" in 2020/21. At the same time, between the wide doors he still has work to do to always play with the big ones.
The Swiss, who grew a lot right into a giant last year, clearly pays for her very difficult summer conditioned by the physical problem, in the form of mononucleosis, which has stopped her for weeks and still has to manage.
TWO STARS FOR ... SIX!
Mina Fuerst Holtmann was quite inconsistent in the last year, but she had started very well with a 5th place in Soelden and who knows that in the season that is about to begin she will show her true potential.
Nina O''Brien, 15th on the Rettenbach in 2020, began her ascent from there that brought her to ... five doors from a possible world title in Cortina, before that sensational cost to the American.
Maryna Gasienica-Daniel, on the other hand, stopped at that fall in the final of the Jasna giant, launched towards a historic podium for Poland, ready to amaze us again. From emerging to possible returns to high levels, here we move on to Stephanie Brunner, a talent who needs no introduction, but was devastated by the triple crusader injury between 2018 and 2019. This will have to be the season of her high revival. level.
Sara Hector is looking for continuity, on the podium in Courchevel last December before dropping conspicuously, while it will be curious to find out how far Ramona Siebenhofer can go, who surprised everyone in 2020/21 for the level shown in giant. Not yet from the podium or top 5, but we are not too far away either ...
SURPRISES FROM ... TOP TEN
The names are many and also concern several blue ones.
Let's start with them, with Elena Curtoni who will come out of the gate close to the top 15 and will have to exploit, as she did very well last season, the good bib to fight close to the top ten area. Karoline Pichler, inserted this year in the multipurpose group, now has all the possibilities, after having regained confidence and continuity especially in the European Cup, to constantly score points and ... something more. Qualification for the second heat which will also be the goal of Roberta Melesi, who on Rettenbach obtained the first points in the CdM in 2019, and of Roberta Midali, in the top 30 of the last two giants played between Kranjska Gora and Kronplatz. Ilaria Ghisalberti, who will replace Laura Pirovano, will have to sign a company in her second race in CdM after the one held just a year ago in the Oetztal.
Paula Moltzan will be the third home striker in the USA, she who conquered her first top ten in Soelden 2020, Mélanie Meillard will try to find herself in a run-down Switzerland (Gut-Behrami aside), but the same Valaisian fell last week in training in Diavolezza and was back on skis only yesterday. Then there are interesting names such as Tina Robnik, Maria Tviberg (sixth in the opening 2019), Franziska Gritsch, Valérie Grenier who will try to keep Canada high, the returning Clara Direz, Estelle Alphand, Andreja Slokar (she will be able to amaze even in giant , in addition to the slalom?) and the "crazy horse" Ester Ledecka.
First points in giant (20th) a year ago in Soelden, for the bi Olympic champion Saturday will be mainly a test thinking already about the fast races of Lake Louise, but it will still be very interesting to see her in the race.
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Giant slalom Female Soelden (AUT)
SHIFFRIN Mikaela
GUT-BEHRAMI Lara
VLHOVA Petra
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