Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami won the big crystal globe at the Alpine Skiing World Cup for the second time in her career. The 32-year-old finished 10th in the giant slalom in Saalbach, Austria, where the World Cup finals are being held.
This was enough to put her out of reach at the top of the general classification, although her only remaining competitor, Federica Brignone of Italy, won the race. Thus, Brignone displaced Mikaela Shiffrin from second place in the standings and reduced her gap to Gut-Behrami to 208 points. There are only two starts left until the end of the season and a maximum of 200 points to earn, which means that the Swiss is officially the champion for the second time since 2016.
Brignone was convincing today, setting the best time in the first heat and the third time in the second to leave more than a second behind all her rivals. New Zealander Alice Robinson finished in second place (+1.36 seconds), and Thea Stjernesund (+1.67) completed the top 3.
Gut-Behrami was not at her usual height, especially in the second part of the race, but she still finished in 10th place, which was enough for her not only for the big crystal globe, but also for small ones in the discipline. There she finished just 21 points ahead of Brignone.
The season is not over for Gut-Behrami, however, as she will have to defend her lead in Super-G (69 points ahead of Cornelia Hütter) and Downhill (19 points ahead of Sofia Goja) in the final two starts, which will take place on the 22 and March 23. /BGNES
