Beijing Olympics, Golden Gut in superG. Bad blue: Brignone 7ª, Curtoni 10ª

From our correspondent Simone Battaggia

February 11th
– Yanqing (Cina)

The most anticipated super-G of the four-year period, the race in which Italy should have taken home a safe medal after winning six races out of seven in the World Cup, is resolved in a blow. The best is Federica Brignone, who finished seventh at 66 cents from Lara Gut Behrami‘s gold. Silver goes to the Austrian Mirjam Puchner, 22/100 from Switzerland, while bronze goes to the other Swiss Michelle Gisin, 30/100 from her compatriot. Elena Curtoni, winner this year in Cortina, finished tenth at 90/100; Marta Bassino seventeenth at 1 ”57, Francesca Marsaglia twenty-second at 2” 10. The Czech Ester Ledecka, reigning Olympic champion and veteran of gold in the parallel giant snowboard, this time finished fifth. The Yanqing track was an unknown for all athletes, since no pre-Olympic competition was held and that, unlike the men who had had the downhill tests available, there was no chance to try it. . In the end it turned out to be not very technical, in which it was essential to run the skis. After the bronze in giant, Lara Gut-Behrami made the difference especially in the central part, where she kept very direct lines.

Too easy

—

So Federica Brignone: “If I could go back up, I wouldn’t know what to do differently. Today I didn’t get overwhelmed by the pressure, I didn’t brake in a single corner, I made straight bumps, I got the lines right, I did the right things. It just wasn’t enough. Perhaps the entrance curve of the last shelf could have come to me better if we are looking for a nit, but I did what I had in mind to do. I’m not the best in these conditions. I was all winter in many things, but this really was an elementary track, an elementary track, there was no difficulty. If I had gone under and braked it would have been worse, but today I tried, I’m satisfied with my performance. I did what I could do and I’m proud of that. Already the PyeongChang track was banal, this one is even more so. We could at least have started from the start of the boys, we deserved it. Countermeasures against the combined? There are none. In the meantime, I have to qualify for the descent, this is the first goal “.

The other blue ones

—

Elena Curtoni is deeply disappointed, she struggles to hold back her tears. The approach to the race for the Valtellinese was more complicated as a “close contact” of a person who then tested positive. “I could have done better for sure. I have not yet analyzed where I went wrong, surely Lara has made the difference in the central part on which I have not stretched the lines. It was an easier super-G than expected, but they are ski races, you have to adapt, I’m sorry I didn’t succeed. I put my heart into it, I did it for myself, I really cared a lot and that’s how it went. This does not change what I have done so far and who I am. There are new goals, I’ll try to face the next few days with a little more lightness and we’ll see ”. Marta Bassino appears calmed: “I’m not happy, but clearly I’m fine compared to the giant. It took me a moment to leave that race behind me. We know what matters here. It seemed that the track had to be more difficult, technical, but it was really easy, even the central part where there were only four corners, in the end it was easy. I think I took a break above and in the end, it took me a lifetime to get to the finish line. I will do combined and team events for sure, then let’s see what happens in the selection of the descent. If I take a lot of gap, I practice for the combi and keep my energy concentrated for that race (without going downhill, ed). This is a track on which you need to know how to flow. With this easy snow you just have to let your skis go ”. Francesca Marsaglia is also disappointed. “I was hoping for better. I am very disappointed, this track was not the best for us, on a technical level there was not much to do. I had been arriving for a complicated month, physically and consequently mentally, but I had done everything to recover and get here well. My high today wasn’t enough. I’m sorry for my teammates, who were dominating in the World Cup and found such a track here. This is the Olympics, it comes every four years ”.

The consecration

—

For Gut it is the first Olympic gold, the second medal of these Games after the bronze in giant. At 30 years and 14 years after his first career success (in super-G), it is the consecration of a talent who at the Olympics, before this edition, had collected only one bronze in downhill in 2014 but who had twice been fourth in super-G (for 8 cents in total). It is the first Olympic gold in super-G for Switzerland (including men). Fifth place for the outgoing champion, Ester Ledecka, who did not succeed in an encore after the gold conquered in the parallel giant of the snowboard.