Alpine skiing – Race 2, Victory 2: Gut Bahrami is irresistible in the giant slalom in Killington

As with his win a month ago in the season opener in Sölden, Gut Behrami won the race with an irresistible second round. When she made the decision at third, she took seven-tenths from halftime leader Alice Robinson and 66-hundredths from Mikaela Shiffrin. In the final tally, the 32-year-old trailed her competitors by no less than 62 hundredths.

Shiffrin, who attended a sports academy in Vermont as a teenager, is still awaiting her first giant slalom victory in front of her home crowd. However, she has won five of Killington’s six slalom races so far.

While Shiffrin will have to be patient in the giant slalom, Jot Bahrami provided the next example of her great condition and consistency. It took the Ticino woman nearly three years after suffering a cruciate ligament tear at the beginning of 2017, before she could compete for the podium again in the giant slalom. Since the 2020/21 season, she has again been on the podium in the main discipline and has been incredibly consistent: in 21 of the last 23 World Cup giant slalom races, she has been ranked in the top ten. She reached the podium eight times and won three times. She also won the World Cup title in 2021 and the Olympic bronze in 2022.

Jessen with extra

As in Sölden, when Melanie Maillard was the second best Swiss ski athlete in the final standings in 17th place, Gut Behrami was the only Swiss woman in front. Michelle Jessen (14th) made it into the top 15 after improving in the second round, and Wendy Holdener and Simone Wild were 23rd and 25th. Melanie Millard was absent after a month of good starts in Austria, as were Camille Rast, Andrea Ellenberger and Vivienne Haré. And Stephanie Grubb in the second round.

The third winter slalom is scheduled for Sunday in Killington (round 1 at 4pm/round 2 at 7pm). It’s an especially good opportunity for Holdener to quickly forget about a poor Saturday: the Schwieze woman, who continues to struggle in the giant slalom and is one of the best in the slalom, will start as last year’s winner. The victory 364 days ago was the first in its leading field after 30 World Cup podium finishes. (seda)

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