Next Sunday, for the sixth time, an Alpine Ski World Cup Super-G will take place in the challenging “Karl Schranz” racecourse in St. Anton.
St. Anton (AUT)
January 12th Super-G / Women 11:15 CET
The fight for the lead of the Super-G standings in the 2024-2025 Alpine Ski World Cup is a fierce competition between three names: Defending champion Lara Gut-Behrami, Sofia Goggia, and Cornelia Huetter. The Swiss and Italian skiers are tied for first place with 160 points. The Austrian follows with 150. Federica Brignone is fourth with 90 points.
"Experience is a rank" in the speed disciplines of the Alpine Ski World Cup. The four favorites to win in St. Anton are all over 30 years old: Lara Gut-Behrami (33), Sofia Goggia (32), Cornelia Huetter (32), and Federica Brignone (34).
Since the start of the 2023-2024 season six Women won the last 11 Alpine Ski World Cup Super-G races: Sofia Goggia (St. Moritz, and Beaver Creek), Federica Brignone (Val d'Isère, and Kvitfjell), Cornelia Hütter (Zauchensee, and St. Moritz), Lara Gut-Behrami (Zauchensee, Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Kvitfjell), Stephanie Venier (Crans Montana), and Ester Ledecka (Saalbach).
Sofia Goggia imposed her aggressive style on the Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek to win the first World Cup Super-G of the 2024-2025 season. Lara Gut-Behrami finished in second place 0.48 seconds behind. Ariane Raedler rounded up the podium in third position 0.55 seconds off the pace.
The 32-year-old speed specialist crowned a dream comeback and celebrated her seventh Super-G victory and 25th win in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Cornelia Huetter won the second Super-G of the season and celebrated her second victory of the 2024-2025 Alpine Ski World Cup in St. Moritz. Thanks to a perfect line, she beat Lara Gut-Behrami by 0.18 seconds. Sofia Goggia finished third, 0.33 seconds behind the Austrian.
The 32-year-old, who won the season's first Downhill at the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, claimed her eighth Alpine World Cup victory, the fifth in the Super-G. She is the first Austrian to win the super-G in St. Moritz since Michaela Dorfmeister in 2006.
Lara Gut-Behrami finished in second place in the first two Super-G races of the season held at the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, and St. Moritz.
Gut-Behrami won the Super-G Crystal Globe last season. She joined the Club of Super-G stars with her fifth Crystal Globe (2014, 2016, 2021, 2023, and 2024). German Katja Seizinger (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1998) and American Lindsey Vonn (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015) are the other two women in this exclusive group.
On the Men side, Austrian Hermann Maier (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2004) and Norwegian Aksel Svindal (2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2014) are also in the exclusive club of the winners of five Super-G Crystal Globes.
She is the first woman to win the Super-G title in successive seasons since Tina Weirather won in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.
Gut-Behrami became the first Swiss woman to win three different World Cup classifications (Giant Slalom, Super-G, and Overall) in a single season since Vreni Schneider won the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Overall World Cup in 1994-1995.
The skier from Ticino finished on the podium in six of the nine Super-G events last season including three victories in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Kvitfjell (she DNF in Val d'Isère, finished in 6th place in Crans Montana, and in 7th place in Saalbach).
Gut-Behrami (22) is second for most World Cup Super-G wins among women, only trailing Lindsey Vonn (28). Gut-Behrami is tied second with Renate Götschl (41) for most podium finishes, trailing only Lindsey Vonn (46).
Lara Gut-Behrami is the reigning Olympic champion, having won the gold medal in the super-G at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
Gut-Behrami finished on the podium in the last three Super-G World Cup events held in St. Anton including two victories (2021, and 2023) and a third place (2023). In her first Super-G event in the Karl Schranz course in 2013, she finished seventh.
Sofia Goggia won the Downhill in St. Anton in 2021 but has yet to complete a Super-G on the Karl Schranz course, having failed to do so in 2023 and 2021.
A victory for Sofia Goggia in St. Anton would position the Italian skier as the eighth most successful female World Cup Super G athlete, tying her with German Hilde Gerg.
Last season, Cornelia Hütter achieved a top-three finish in the Super-G World Cup standings for the first time. Previously, her best results were two fourth-place finishes in the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 winter seasons. Hütter had a successful Super-G season last winter, finishing on the podium four times. This included a victory in the first event held in Zauchensee and three second-place finishes in St. Moritz, Zauchensee, and Kvitfjell.
2023-2024 was the best season in Huetter's career finishing 5th in the Overall standings, first in the Downhill, and third in the Super-G.
No Austrian woman has ever won the Super-G World Cup in St. Anton. Anna Fenninger in 2013 and Alexandra Meissnitzer in 1999 finished both in second place. Cornelia Huetter has a strong opportunity to end that drought. Huetter's victory in St. Moritz took her personal Super-G tally to five, equal with Mikaela Shiffrin.
Her best Super-G result in St. Anton was ninth place in 2023.
Federica Brignone finished in second place on the Super-G standings last season. The 34-year-old skier won two Super-G events in Val d'Isère, and Kvitfjell, and finished on the podium in Crans Montana and Saalbach.
The Italian skier celebrated 10 of her 29 Alpine Ski World Cup victories in Super-G and 20 of her 71 podiums in the same discipline. The only Italian skier to have won more than 29 World Cup events is the legendary Alberto Tomba, with 50 victories.
Brignone has finished first or second in the Super-G standings for the last five Alpine Ski World Cup seasons (2-2-1-2-2), winning the Crystal Globe in 2021-2022.
With 10 wins, Brignone is currently tied for sixth place in the most World Cup Super-G victories, alongside Michaela Dorfmeister.
Federica Brignone’s Super-G record in St. Anton is almost as good as Gut-Behrami’s. The Italian won the opening race in 2023 and came second in the second race a day later.
With a win this weekend, the 34-year-old will become the oldest female skier to win a World Cup Super G, overtaking Elisabeth Görgl (AUT), who won at the age of 33 years, 10 months, and 1 day.
Ariane Raedler finished third in the first Super-G of the season in Beaver Creek to claim the second podium of her Alpine Ski World Cup career. The 29-year-old Austrian skier claimed her first podium in the Super-G held in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on January 16, 2022.
Stephanie Venier finished in fourth place in the Super-G standings last season. She climbed onto the podium two times, including a victory in Crans Montana, her maiden World Cup win in the Super-G, seven years after her first podium in the discipline in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It's the third victory in the Alpine Ski World Cup for Venier and her 11th podium. Venier became the 19th Austrian to win a Super-G race in the World Cup. The Tirolean was also the first Austrian to win a Super-G event in Crans Montana.
In the 2023-2024 season, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie achieved three podium finishes in a World Cup season for the first time. All three podiums were in Super-G events: she secured second places in Val d'Isère and Altenmarkt/Zauchensee, along with a third place in Saalbach.
Two years after winning her last World Cup race, Ester Ledecka returned to the top of the podium at the Alpine Ski World Cup Finals in Saalbach. The Super-G Olympic champion celebrated her 10th podium finish and her fourth World Cup victory.
Mirjam Puchner won the silver medal in the Super-G at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. At the World Cup, she has never finished higher than third place in a Super-G event: in Lake Louise in December 2021, in Altenmarkt in January 2024, and Kvitfjell in March 2024.
Elena Curtoni made her comeback in Beaver Creek, finishing ninth in the Super-G. The 33-year-old speed specialist finished fourth in St. Moritz.
Returning Lindsey Vonn will have this season the opportunity to extend her title as the most successful Super-G skier in World Cup history with 28 victories. Vonn can, at the age of 40, become the oldest female skier to win a Super-G World Cup race.
The winner of 82 World Cup races, including 43 Downhill races and 28 Super-G, finished 14th on her return to the World Cup stage in December’s Super-G in St. Moritz after almost six years in retirement.
This is Vonn's third time competing in St. Anton. In 2007 she won the Downhill and the Super Combined. In 2013 she finished sixth in the Downhill and fourth in the Super-G.
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