Lara Gut-Behrami claims her 6th win in Cortina but won’t say if she’ll compete at the 2026 Olympics
By Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press on January 28, 2024.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) – Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami is halfway to Lindsey Vonn’s Cortina record after claiming a World Cup super-G on Sunday for her sixth career victory on the Olympia delle Tofane course – which again was the site of multiple crashes. Too bad the 32-year-old Gut-Behrami can’t say for sure yet whether she’ll still be competing in two years at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. In a race when many of the top favorites struggled with a tricky course-set, Gut-Behrami edged Stephanie Venier, Friday’s downhill winner, by 0.21 seconds. Romane Miradoli finished third, 0.41 behind. “I have very good memories here,” said Gut-Behrami, who has a home in northern Italy. “With all the crashes, really I just tried not to take any risk and just tried to keep in it to the finish. … When you’re winning it’s even better because your skiing is there and it’s solid.” Asked if she will be back at Cortina next year, Gut-Behrami responded only, “We’ll see.” A day earlier, Gut-Behrami said she planned to compete through next season’s world championships in Saalbach, Austria. It was Gut-Behrami’s fourth World Cup win in Cortina, to go with her two gold medals at the 2021 world championships at the Italian resort. Vonn won 12 World Cup races in Cortina – six downhills and six super-Gs. After Mikaela Shiffrin crashed but avoided major injury on Friday and Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter and Swiss teammate Joana Haehlen had season-ending injuries over the weekend, there was another serious crash involving Canadian racer Valerie Grenier, who finished third on Friday. Grenier was taken off the course by toboggan after receiving lengthy medical treatment and Alpine Canada said later that she injured her shoulder and “will likely require surgery.” There were several other falls that did not result in serious injuries. Gut-Behrami, who earned her 41st World Cup victory, moved within 195 points of Shiffrin in the overall standings, with the American still out of action at least through Tuesday. ___ More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing 15-14
