24 year old Jasmine Flury produced the run of her life as she made it a Swiss double top in the opening Super G in St Moritz. After the Alpine Combined had been cancelled due to high winds not allowing the Super G section to be run, this was the race result that the Swiss needed, especially as Lara Gut crashed out heavily into the netting midway down. Michelle Gisin took second, having briefly held the lead with Tina Weirather taking third almost a clean sweep for the Swiss seeing as Weirather trains with the Swiss.
Viktoria Rebensburg is on fire this season and already the intense battle between her and Mikaela Shiffrin is looking mouth watering. Rebensburg has two wins on the board already and Shiffrin, two as well. Rebensburg was first out of the gate and set an early pace. With short stops here and there for the wind to die down, it took until Weirather grabbed the lead for the race to liven up.
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ST MORITZ, SWITZERLAND - DECEMBER 09: Lindsey Vonn of USA during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Super G on December 9, 2017 in St Moritz, Switzerland. (Photo by Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom)[/caption]
A subdued Lindsey Vonn suffered a compressed back on the fifth gate and made it down to the finish ending up in 24th spot.
When Michelle Gisin came down and took the lead from Weirather, it looked as if she would gain her maiden World Cup win and on home snow. Two racers later and she had the boots off, jacket on and the cheers were for her teammate. Flury, who had never been higher than 5th in a Super G before, in the Olympic warm up race in Jeongseon, Korea, last year, was now leading a World Cup race.
Federica Brignone came down from 17 to further bump Rebensburg down and then Anna Veith produced a really positive run to place fifth from a start number of 21. This was what ski racing needed!
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ST MORITZ, SWITZERLAND - DECEMBER 09: Michelle Gisin of Switzerland takes 2nd place during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Super G on December 9, 2017 in St Moritz, Switzerland. (Photo by Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom)[/caption]
Veith explained “It was hard, especially with the delays and the wind. It was cold at the start, which is not accepted after a knee injury. It was a good trip, but not very good. I've been down there a number of times, that was an advantage. The snow, the slopes were great. The first step was getting my performance to the finish. The next one is that I pull the turns right. If that's the case, I'm looking forward to it.”
Conditions improved for the later racers with Rahel Kopp (bib 40) giving more cheer for the Swiss in going into 12th and then Elena Fanchini (bib 58) and Denise Feierabend (bib 59) placing 14 and 16.
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ST MORITZ, SWITZERLAND - DECEMBER 09: Jasmine Flury of Switzerland, Michelle Gisin of Switzerland, Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Super G on December 9, 2017 in St Moritz, Switzerland. (Photo by Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom)[/caption]
With Shiffrin dropping to 20th, this sees Shiffrin leading the Overall by the small margin of 145 points at this early stage of the season!
Full Results