With 14,500 fans cheering in the crowded finish stadium, Stephanie Venier unexpectedly delivered a golden victory at the 2025 Ski World Championships in Saalbach. The Tyrolean claimed the Super-G title on the Hinterglemmer Zwölferkogel thanks to a flawless run, becoming the first Austrian to win the women's Super-G at the World Championships since Nicole Schmidhofer in 2017. This marks Austria's eighth gold medal in the Super-G event.
The 31-year-old skier from Tyrol adds today's medal to her silver from the Downhill event in St. Moritz 2017.
Venier is the 5th woman to win World Championships Super-G gold on home snow. Maria Walliser in Crans Montana in 1987, Ulrike Maier in Saalbach-Hinterglemm in 1991, Isolde Kostner in Sestriere in 1997, and Anja Pärson in Are in 2007 are the other four.
"I don't know what to say. I'm just speechless. It was an amazing run, and in front of the home crowd it's even more special, nothing can beat this," Venier said.
Federica Brignone finished in second place, just +0.10 seconds behind Venier. Today's silver is Brignone's fourth Alpine World Ski Championships medal and the first in the Super-G.
"I really fought with myself with what I am used to doing. I push on the turns, and today, I was telling myself, 'Just be smooth, don't push, just go down.' I also knew that if I wanted to be fast, I had to arrive on the jumps fearless, knowing that if I wanted to keep the speed, I had to jump far. I've been training for that a lot," Brignone said.
Lauren Macuga and Kajsa Vickhoff Lie completed the podium, tying for third place, just 0.24 seconds behind the Austrian. Lie repeated position on the podium. She was tied for bronze with Cornelia Hütter in Courchevel Meribel in 2023.
The 22-year-old US skier confirmed today she is one of the rising stars in Alpine Skiing and took bronze in her debut race at the Ski World Championships. Macuga won her first World Cup race in St. Anton last month. It was her first Alpine World Cup podium.
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