Mattia Casse had to wait until he was 34 years old before he was able to celebrate his first World Cup victory. Today's super-G in Val Gardena was the day: the Italian left all his competitors behind him in the first of the two speed competitions on the Saslong and climbed to the top of the podium for the first time in his 201st race.
Casse had the best grip on the very challenging slope after all that fresh snow and finished in 1:28.23 minutes, just a hair-line ahead of the American Jared Goldberg (+0.01 seconds). With his first victory, the “Azzurro” took his second podium finish in Val Gardena after third place in the 2022 downhill. Casse has already shown in the training runs that he is a contender in the downhill classic on Saturday: he came first in the first and second in the second training run.
Jared Goldberg, who was narrowly beaten, also made his debut at the foot of the Sassolungo – as the runner-up, the Gardena specialist took his first podium finish in the World Cup. The top three was completed by the exceptional Swiss skier Marco Odermatt. The winner of the super-G in Beaver Creek will have to wait a little longer for his first Saslong triumph.
Strong “Azzurri”, weak Austrians
Italy's speed aces put in a strong team performance in front of their home crowd. In addition to today's winner Casse, Dominik Paris from the Ulten region also made it into the top ten with a tenth place finish. Pietro Zazzi came in just behind him in eleventh place, with Nicolò Molteni (16th) and Giovanni Franzoni (30th) two more “Azzurri” to make it into the points. The super-G did not go as well as hoped for the trio of South Tyroleans Christof Innerhofer (Gais), Florian Schieder (Kastelruth) and Max Perathoner (Wolkenstein): Innerhofer finished in 35th place, Schieder in 54th place and Gröden debutant Perathoner did not finish.
The super-G was also a flop for the Austrian team. After Vincent Kriechmayr and Daniel Hemetsberger had achieved a double victory last year, this time no Austrian made it into the top ten. The best ÖSV skier was three-time Saslong winner Vincent Kriechmayr in twelfth place.
Mattia Casse (ITA | 1st place): “Today I finally managed to nail a great race. My run was good from top to bottom, even though I could have done better in the final section. Fortunately, I had the decisive hundredths on my side today. Physically, I feel great at the moment: in the last few years, I have worked a lot on myself in the summer, and this effort is now paying off. We will have a quick drink at the hotel to celebrate today's result, but our focus is already on tomorrow's downhill – I want to continue as I have today.”
Jared Goldberg (USA | 2nd place): “I had an excellent feeling right from the start today and also caught the difficult parts well on the course. We Americans are always good in Val Gardena/Gröden because we grow up in similar conditions to here and are also used to free training with jumps. I really enjoy the World Cup races on the Saslong because they are different from all the other venues for me. When I start here, I'm not as nervous as elsewhere. It's a shame that I missed out on victory by a hundredth today – maybe next time my performance will be rewarded with a bit of luck.”
Marco Odermatt (SUI | 3rd place): “I lost time today, especially in the middle section – I still need to analyze why exactly. In Val Gardena/Gröden, however, it is normal to lose time even without making a big mistake, I have experienced this several times. All in all, I am satisfied with my race today, my performance was not bad. I am still waiting for my first victory on the Saslong, but I am happy with every top result here.”
Dominik Paris (ITA/Ulten | 10th place): “The conditions today were quite strange; I couldn't get to grips with the soft piste right from the start. I also made one or two mistakes, which of course you can't afford to do here, otherwise you won't be at the front. I'm very happy for Mattia Casse, as he has been in very strong form for quite some time and has now shown that in a race. But we're all in good form in the team and have a great team spirit – this is also reflected in the results. I hope that the conditions tomorrow are different from today and that we don't have to adjust to a weather lottery.”
Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT | 12th place): “Today was really challenging, after the snowfalls the slope was very soft from top to bottom. That means you always have to stay on track and ski with a lot of feeling to be fast. I probably took it a bit too straight a few times, which cost me speed. But we skiers are all happy that a race was held at all after all the fresh snow. I have to be honest with myself, though: the competition was better than me today, unfortunately my run didn't go as well as I would have liked.”