The 27-year-old skier beat two of the stars of world skiing, the American Mikaela Shiffrin and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami.
Frenchwoman Romane Miradoli (27) won the first World Cup race of her career on Saturday at the super-G in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), ending a 17-year shortage for French skiers in speed. Miradoli beat two of the stars of world skiing, the American Mikaela Shiffrin by 38/100 and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, Olympic champion, by 88/100. The Italian Federica Brignone, 9th, won the small specialty globe, before the last super-G in two weeks in Courchevel.
With bib number 8, Miradoli took all the risks to set the best time, failing to make mistakes several times on a difficult course which brought out around fifteen skiers. Under the eyes of tennis legend Roger Federer, who came as a neighbor to the finish area, the skier from Flaine (Haute-Savoie) achieved the greatest performance of her career, she who had never done better than 5th on the world circuit.
It has been more than 17 years since a French woman won in speed at the World Cup, since Ingrid Jacquemod’s success in the downhill of Santa Caterina (Italy) in January 2005. The last victory in the super-G , it was Carole Montillet at Haus im Ennstal (Austria) in February 2004. Regular in the top 15, Miradoli has been able to raise her level even further since her return to competition three months ago, after being the victim of a major knee injury in December 2020.
Behind her, Shiffrin got up after a disastrous Olympic Games (zero medals in six races, three off the track). Her 11th podium of the winter allows her to take a 67-point lead in the general classification over her Slovak rival Petra Vlhova, only 18th on Saturday. Tessa Worley took 6th place, Laura Gauché 9th, Tifany Roux 25th. The skiers continue on Sunday with a giant in the Graubünden resort.
