Weirather takes her first giant slalom victory

Ladies Giant Slalom, Val d'Isère, 22.12.2013

She was not necessarily expected to win, much earlier Lara Gut, who was looking for revenge after her 25th place in the downhill the day before, which was also her worst result of the season, but Tina Weirather demonstrated her current top form and her superiority, which she has also been demonstrating in the giant slalom since this season (5th place Sölden, 3rd place Beaver Creek), once again with the victory of the giant slalom in Val d'Isère.

Lara Gut had attacked resolutely and with bib number 1 had put in a clean run, cornering tightly on the pull, no braking, letting glide in the downhill sections. Neither Fenninger, nor Höfl-Riesch nor Lindell-Vikarby were able to threaten her. Only Sweden's Maria Pietilae-Holmner, who started the race with bib number 15, was able to catch her with a lead of 19 hundredths of a second. Tina Weirather started the race with bib number 18 and demonstrated her superiority on this day with a lead of 0.66 seconds over Pietilae-Holmner and 0.85 seconds over Lara Gut. Tina Maze experienced a moment of shock when she was in the lead at the intermediate time and almost spun in a passage and dropped out. It was almost a miracle that she still finished in 20th place with this pirouette, she had certainly lost more than 1 second and would certainly have been at the front without this mishap. With the second fastest time in the 2nd run, the Slovenian could at least work her way up to 11th place.

Lara Gut also went into the second run without any problems and again showed a very good run. Tina Weirather's lead from the first run was so big that she easily made it to the podium with only the ninth-fastest time in the second run and took her first Giant Slalom victory of her career. A surprise once again was Kajsa Kling. The Swede had skied from bib number 40 to 25th place in the 1st run. In the 2nd run she got the best time and skied to the final rank 10. The Swedes are very strong this year and this Kajsa Kling is not the first time good for a surprise, just think of her 2nd place at the Super G in St. Moritz. In the end there were three Swedes in the top 10 and two Swiss skiers with Dominique Gisin.

Ranking list

1 Tina Weirather (LIE), 1:08.23, 1:15.87, 2:24.10
2 Lara Gut (SUI), 1:09.08, 1:15.75, 2:24.83
3 Maria Pietilae-Holmner (SWE), 1:08.89, 1:16.16, 2:25.05
4 Federica Brignone (ITA), 1:09.40, 1:15.81, 2:25.21
5 Maria Höfl-Riesch (GER), 1:09.65, 1:15.61, 2:25.26
6 Jessica Lindell-Vikarby (SWE), 1:09.21, 1:16.06, 2:25.27
7 Anna Fenninger (AUT), 1:09.35, 1:15.93, 2:25.28
8 Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), 1:09.79, 1:15.78, 2:25.57
9 Dominique Gisin (SUI), 1:09.46, 1:16.28, 2:25.74
10 Kajsa Kling (SWE), 1:10.83, 1:14.96, 2:25.79

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