Freeride World Tour 2020. Third Stop: Ordino Arcalís, Andorra

In a few days, The Freeride World Tour is back for another action-packed event!

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR VALLNORD ARCALIS - ANDORRA

Date: February 28 - March 4, 2020; Location: Vallnord Arcalis, Andorra

Federica Brignone Wins Second Alpine Combined of the Season in Crans Montana

Today, under warm temperatures and difficult conditions, Federica Brignone repeated her performance from last season with an impressive Super-G and Slalom runs to claim her third career Alpine Combined victory at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Skiing from first place after the Super-G, the Italian attacked Mont Lachaux with the fastest slalom run to finish 0.92 seconds ahead of an impressive Franziska Gritsch from Austria and 1.82 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Ester Ledecka.

Federica Brignone has now won four of the last five Ladies' Alpine combined World Cup events held in Crans-Montana, in 2017, 2018, 2019 and today.
"I don’t know what the magic [is] here in Crans-Montana for me, but it’s really amazing. The crowd is amazing. I don’t know. I feel a little bit lucky today, but it was a good fight. For sure, I made my race with the super G", reflected Brignone. "There is a kind of magic here. I’m always really comfortable with the snow and with this slope. Today, I wasn’t even stressed at the slalom. I just tried to do my best and really attack from the start to the finish".

She also takes the lead of the Overall (she is now 73 points ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin with 11 races remaining) and the Alpine Combined Standings with only one AC race to go in La Thuile. Last season she won the first and last Alpine Combined race in Crans-Montana, but no globe was awarded because the FIS rules require two races to be contested in order to award a discipline globe.
Franziska Gritsch, a 22 years old specialist in technical events, completes a surprising Super-G run in 5th place which, in addition to her technical slalom skills, allows her to grab the second seasonal podium after St.Moritz Parallel Race.
Ester Ledecka, who put together a great Super-G run added to an excellent slalom one, grab her third World Cup Podium after Lake Louise (1 place, Downhill, 2019) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (3 place, Downhill, 2020).

Lara Gut Takes Double Victory in Crans-Montana

Second consecutive victory for Lara Gut in Crans-Montana. It was her 26th career World Cup victory.
All eyes were today on Gut-Behrami with bib 17, one position earlier than her start on Friday, to see if she could once again win despite progressively slowing conditions on the course.
"Yesterday I was in the flow from the top to finish. Today it was a little bit more complicated. The snow was a little bit softer, and I was struggling a few times with comparing the feeling I’ve had during this season. I didn’t trust myself 100 percent just to push. Sometimes I was a little bit too light on my turns. I’m happy anyway even if it wasn’t perfect or how I wanted it in my mind. I was happy to push and take risks", concluded Gut-Behrami who felt like she conquered her fears over the past two days. "Even if I made mistakes, I was just pushing forward. I mean, I won the race on the last three turns just because I didn’t give up and I tried to be fast and win meters from the top to the finish".
Corinne Suter repeats second place on the podium +0.02 behind Gut. With today's second-place Suter is crowned as the new speed queen. She is the first Swiss female skier to win the Downhill title since Chantal Bournissen won it in the 1990-1991 winter season.
Like in Friday’s Downhill, the Austrians also claimed third place on the day in one of the closest races of this season as Nina Ortlieb completes the podium (+0.05 s.). It was her first World Cup Podium.

Filip Zubcic Wins Giant Slalom in Yuzawa Naeba

Filip Zubcic writes history in Niigata Yuzawa Naeba (JPN), claiming his first-ever World Cup victory thanks to a phenomenal second run. Zubcic was sitting in 12th position after run 1 and clocked the fastest time in run 2, taking a spectacular victory in Naeba.

It's a historic day for Croatia, as Zubcic's victory marks the first Croatian World Cup victory outside the Kostelic family, the first one ever in Giant Slalom among the men.

"I am very proud to be the first Croatian man to win a World Cup Giant Slalom race. I was always hoping to win a World Cup race and I knew it could come this season as I have been skiing really fast lately. This victory is for my family and my team, who have been supporting me for the last 21 years!", said Zubcic.

Marco Odermatt, third after the first run, was one of the few who managed to stay in the top positions despite the rough course and celebrates today his second podium this season (+0.74s) after the Super G victory in Beaver Creek. The Swiss skier shows to be fully recovered after his knee injury in Alta Badia in December, which kept him far from competitions for around one month.
Tommy Ford also performs a significant comeback and closes in third (+1.07s), sealing his second career podium after winning the home race in Beaver Creek in December.

Lara Gut Wins Downhill in Crans-Montana

Two years and a month later, Lara Gut returns to the top of the podium with a resounding victory in the Downhill of Crans Montana. To find his last victory in a Downhill we have to go back one more year, to January 2017 in Cortina.
Crans Montana was the scene of a Swiss double in front of 7000 spectators cheering on their heroines. Lara Gut crossed the finish line in the lead in front of her teammate Corinne Suter, conquering her 8th World Cup wins in Downhill and 25th of World Cup career.
Corinne Suter, in second position +0.80 gets her fifth podium of the season. It's her third Downhill seasonal podium, and she still leads the Downhill standing on Ester Ledecka by 120 points. She will have the opportunity to close the Downhill standing leading before the World Cup finals in Cortina with tomorrow’s Downhill.
Stephanie Venier completes the podium +0.92 seconds back. It is the second podium of the season for the Austrian skier.
Petra Vlhova was fourth 1.08 behind, to score an unexpected 50 World Cup points for a career-best result in Downhill. The Slovakian slalom specialist only ever started one World Cup Downhill until last month in Bansko where she surprised with a 6th place reconfirmed by another top ten in Garmisch Partenkirchen.

Crans-Montana/Valais 2025

In April 2019, Swiss-Ski, Crans-Montana, and the canton of Valais have submitted the candidacy of Crans-Montana for the World Ski Championships 2025 at the headquarters of the World Federation FIS in Oberhofen am Thunersee, Switzerland.
The first information session for candidates, in all disciplines, for the organization of the 2025 World Championships took place at the scheduled International Ski Federation meeting in Dubrovnik-Cavtat/CRO. In Alpine skiing, the candidates already disclosed to the general public are Garmisch-Partenkirchen/GER, Saalbach-Hinterglemm/AUT and Crans-Montana/Valais.
On January Marius Robyr, the executive director of the Crans-Montana/Valais bid committee for the Ski World Championships in 2025, presented the project to the population of Valais. The local population was invited to Le Régent in Crans-Montana to hear details of the Crans-Montana/Valais 2025 candidature project, which will be presented to the FIS in May.

Several notions that are important to the bid committee were central in the speech: authenticity, youth, sustainability, emotion, and passion. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Crans-Montana has a long tradition of alpine racing dating back to 1911.

On 7 January in 1911, the foundations for the fascinating history of skiing in Crans-Montana were laid. Englishman Sir Arnold Lunn, skiing pioneer, was the trailblazer, organizing the 1st downhill in the history of Alpine skiing from the Plaine Morte Glacier to Montana. From 1977 until 2019, Crans-Montana has organized some 47 FIS World Cup races and over 50 European Cup and FIS races, two World Cup finals 1992 and 1998, the European Cup finals in 2009, the Junior World Championships in 2011, as well as the unforgettable World Championships in 1987 on its Mont Lachaux and Nationale pistes.
In order to host this celebration of global skiing once again, the considerable budget for the organization amounts to some 77 million francs. For the event, the Haut-Plateau resort is going to build a completely modernized multi-purpose finish stadium, as well as offering more hotel infrastructure and also increase the capacity of parking and also the Violettes ski lift.

The Crans-Montana/Valais 2025 bid is considered an outsider against Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen and especially against the Austrian candidate, Saalbach.

The resort which is to host the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2025, will be decided at the 52nd FIS Congress in Thailand in May 2020.

Yuzawa Naeba Preview

February 22nd Giant Slalom / Men
February 23rd  Slalom / Men
Naeba is one of the most popular ski resorts in Japan due to its accessible location from Tokyo and the relatively long snow season.

It has been the venue for numerous international events including the 2016 Alpine Skiing World Cup.

Crans Montana Preview

Ladies Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup moves to Crans Montana for the World Cup Downhills (one replacing Rosa Khutor/RUS) and the Alpine Combined Events. Located on a sunny plateau at 1,500 m above the Rhone Valley, Crans Montana offers visitors an outstanding Alpine panorama over the most beautiful peaks in the Alps, such as the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. The ski domain of Crans Montana (1500-3000) allows skiers and snowboarders to enjoy snow thanks to 30 lifts and 140 km of pistes (53.2 blue, 70 red and 16.8 black) including the mythical Plaine Morte and the National. The Piste Nationale downhill course was remodeled on 2006/07 and two tunnels added to improve access during competitions.

Crans-Montana stretches up to the Plaine Morte glacier at an altitude of 3,000 meters, where the first alpine ski race took place in 1911 when the English skiing pioneer Sir Arnold Lunn organized the world's first timed downhill ski race, on the high Valais plateau from the Plaine Morte glacier to Mollens. Crans-Montana has so far hosted more than 25 FIS European Cup and FIS World Cup competitions, two World Cup Finals (1992 & 1998), the European Cup Finals 2009, and the unforgettable 1987 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Petra Vlhova Wins Slalom in Kranjska Gora

Petra Vlhova won her third slalom in a row with a nearly perfect second run posting the fastest that permit her to climb the rank from the fourth to the first place. Vlhova secured the 56th Zlata Lisica or “Golden Fox” Trophy awarded to the best competitor among the weekend’s two races.
Anna Swenn-Larsson could have snapped the three-year-long winning streak of Mikaela Shiffrin, and Petra Vlhova, who combined have won the last 25 slaloms. She was skiing the second run extending her lead to a massive 1.17 seconds at the final split, but she lost her balance a few gates from the finish and fall over, making the dream of his first World Cup victory fade away.
"I won today and of course I was really lucky because Anna, she was really fast, and if she [didn’t make] the mistake, she [would] win of course. It’s a different victory, but it’s still a victory so I am so happy that I could find something inside me. Because in the first run, I did really bad. In the second run, I tried to push. And in the end, I was lucky, but I took the victory and I am so, so happy because I won again in front of like a ‘home’ crowd and it’s amazing", said Vlhova before thanking her fans in the crowd.Wendy Holdener (SUI) finished 0.24 seconds behind Vlhova in second for her 24th career podium result in slalom followed by Katharina Truppe (AUT) by 0.89.

Alice Robinson Claims World Cup GS in Kranjska Gora

Today's Women Giant Slalom has been very demanding with icy and bumpy conditions that have made the race exciting and very tight.
With those conditions, Alice Robinson put together two solid runs with a few many mistakes during the first run but almost perfect for the second and claimed her second victory of the season in the Giant Slalom of the 56th Golden Fox Trophy held at Kranjska Gora.18-year-old New Zealand sensation Alice Robinson offered a new demonstration of its potential at today’s World Cup race to claim her second World Cup Victory.

Teenage skier charmed the alpine world last year when at the Season Finals in Soldeu Grandvalira she claimed a second-place finish, behind Shiffrin, after earning the qualification spot for the Finals as the Junior World Champion. This season confirmed she confirmed in Sölden is one of the rising stars in Alpine Skiing.

Robinson beat Petra Vlhova by 0.34 seconds, with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and Meta Hrovat from Slovenia tied in the third position 1.59 seconds back.
"It was amazing. The second run was definitely on the limit. I was just kind of pushing as much as I could and definitely had a couple fumbles but I kept the speed going, so yeah, I’m really happy", Robinson said after the race. "I wasn’t really sure. I was going for it, everything that I could… and sometimes when you’re on the limit you’re not sure whether it’s going to be really fast or it’s not. … When I got to the bottom and I saw the lead, I was super excited".
Federica Brignone who shared victory with Petra Vlhova in the previous Giant Slalom in Sestriere a month ago and she has been in the top five in all the last event discipline this season, placed just eighth. Still, she remained on the top of the Giant Slalom standings.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Wins Saalbach Super-G

First victory of the season for Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Mauro Caviezel, second +0.15, and Thomas Dressen, third +0.31, repeat on the podium.
After waiting for around two hours for the wind gusts to calm down, at 13.00 CET it was finally time to race. Kilde beat the weather and all his opponents to take the second Super-G victory of his career, once again in Austria.
Aleksander Kilde was very satisfied after the race: "It's a really good feeling for me, I wanted a top win today. Pinturault and Henrik are very consistent in the technical events, so I have to step it up in the speed events!"

Mauro Caviezel finished second and sealed another podium after Thursday's third place in Downhill.
Thomas Dressen can also not complain about his time in Saalbach. After winning Thursdays' Downhill, the German grabbed his third career podium in Super-G, finishing third, 0.31s behind the leader. 

Thanks to today's race Aleksander Kilde now leads both the Super-G and the Overall standings.

Thomas Dressen Tops Downhill Podium in Saalbach Hinterglemm

German speedster Thomas Dressen found again the right line and won the 5th World Cup race of his career. Dressen takes his third World Cup win of the season in Saalbach with 4 Swiss occupying the next 4 seats: Beat Feuz +0.07, Mauro Caviezel +0.09, Carlo Janka +0.26 and Niels Hintermann +0.49.
For Dressen is the second Downhill victory in a row after his success in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in early February. He proves once again that he is the best German Downhiller of all-time, being the first German athlete to win two consecutive downhill races.

"Today it was just amazing and I was actually surprised when I saw the green light after the mistake I did at the top. I went to school just 30 minutes from here, and today I met some classmates and teachers from my school. It's just like coming home", said Dressen after the race.

Runner-up Beat Feuz (SUI), takes once again the second place (+0.07) and fails to grab his first Austrian victory. It's the sixth time that Feuz finishes second in an Austrian venue. The Swiss skier shows again an incredible consistency, achieving the 18th podium in the last 21 Downhill races.
With today's second place, Feuz practically ensures the crystal globe of the specialty, adding the third in his account after the two achieved in the last two seasons.

Kranjska Gora Preview

Due to bad weather conditions and lack of snow on Pohorje slope in Maribor, the organizers of the Golden Fox have agreed with the organizers of the Vitranc Cup to carry out the Golden Fox for the 8th time on the Vitranc slope in Kranjska Gora.

The Ski Racing Podcast By Ed Drake. S2. E15. Chamonix and Garmisch Review. The Parallel GS

Saalbach Preview

On February 13th and 14th, the Ski Worldcup Men's Downhill and Super-G races will be held on the legendary Zwölferkogel Worldcup piste in Saalbach.

Freeride World Tour 2020. Jonathan Penfield. Snowboard Men Winning Run, Kicking Horse Golden BC

Freeride World Tour 2020. Marion Haerty. Snowboard Women Winning Run, Kicking Horse Golden BC

Freeride World Tour 2020. Jessica Hotter. Ski Women Winning Run, Kicking Horse Golden BC

Freeride World Tour 2020. Kristofer Turdell. Ski Men Winning Run, Kicking Horse Golden BC

Loic Meillard Bags His Maiden Victory in the World Cup in Chamonix

A maiden victory in the World Cup for Loic Meillard who won the Big Final against Thomas Tumler.
With this success, Meillard also wins the Parallel Giant Slalom World Cup and will be awarded the small globe at the finals in Cortina!
Meillard was enthusiastic at the end of the race: "It's always amazing to win a World Cup race, I have been skiing well in Giant Slalom lately and taking a win today close to home is special for me".
But according to Meillard, the win was not all about good skiing. There was also a strong element of luck, which affected the outcome, he said.
"[Parallel] is difficult for the body, but it also needs a lot of luck now that we don’t have the re-run", commented Meillard. "You need to be in the right course because it’s impossible to have two same ones. I was lucky today because I always had the blue ones and it seemed to be a bit faster".

For Thomas Tumler is his second World Cup podium, and the first one this season.

In the Small Final Alexander Schmid beat Tommy Ford to achieve his first World Cup podium in an individual event.

The Parallel Giant Slalom continues to cause unrest among athletes competing on the World Cup circuit. After the event in Chamonix, Alexis Pinturault and other athletes took to social media to express their concerns about the fairness, quality, and safety of the event.

Despite the ski piste known as ‘La Verte’ in Les Houches has been reconfigured to host the Parallel Giant Slalom., the race confirmed the trend that one course often tends to be faster than the other.

For instance, in the 1/8 Finals, the athlete skiing on the blue course never lost.

Alexis Pinturault took to Instagram after the race to express his negative feelings about the Parallel Giant Slalom format:

"Today I feel like being fooled ... we (athletes) taken for pawns of a show and not actor of a sport! Since when in sport luck is more important than performance? And how dangerous is the format? But above all @fisalpine when will the word of the athletes be taken into account?".

The comments section of his post received a flood of traffic. Among those who agree is FIS athlete representative Daniel Yule, who suggests the athlete’s the possibility to launch a boycott.
Other athletes who entered the conversation include the day’s winner, Loic Meillard and his teammate Justin Murisier, Stefan Hadalin, Matteo Marsaglia, Ted Ligety and his coach, Forest Carey, and Luca de Aliprandini. The Italian was another man who took to Instagram to express his concerns. In his post, he asked that FIS must take a harder look at the true risk of placing artificial jumps in a parallel GS track.

"Penso che @fisalpine dovrebbe riflettere, se veramente vale la pena inserire salti artificiali in un tracciato parallelo. Sono stato molto critico nelle interviste post-gara, ma quando si parla di sicurezza, non possiamo scherzare. Noi siamo qui per sciare, non per fare esibizioni di show sui salti, per quello ci sono già altre discipline. Per favore F.I.S. pensaci".

Corinne Suter Wins Garmisch-Partenkirchen Super-G

After claiming her career-first World Cup win in the Downhill of Altenmarkt-Zauchensee Corinne Suter mastered today the icy and bumpy Kandahar course to win the Super-G Race.
She finally regains the red bib in Super-G (she is also the leader in Downhill standings) in the final race of the three straight weeks of speed races.
"Today I skied with my head and with my heart and without pressure, and that’s the way I have to do it always", said Suter. "It was dark, it was bumpy, but at the inspection I saw it and I knew that maybe in the finish area you won’t have the good feeling like in another race, so I just tried my best and I’m super happy with my victory".

Nicole Schmidhofer, of Austria, finished the day in second place just 0.43 seconds back.

Wendy Holdener completed the podium in third place (+0.70).
Federica Brignone (ITA), finished fifth 0.90 seconds back from Suter and closed the gap to the leading Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) to 145 points.

Clement Noel Wins Chamonix Slalom

Clement Noel shows again is one of the most consistent slalom skiers now. It's his sixth podium of the season and his third victory.
Clement Noel is the first French man to win the Slalom in Chamonix.

"I am really happy about the way I was able to manage the second run. I felt some pressure at the start, but in the end, it was awesome!" said Noel after the race.
"There are so many French people that came to support the French team, so that was a special moment when I crossed the finish line with the green light and I could see all these people cheering for me", reminisced Noel. "It’s for sure one of my most important memories of a victory".

Timon Haugan (+0.21) from Norway was second and Adrian Pertl of Austria third (+0.31) proving that what he showed in Kitzbuehel was not just a one-off. It's the first podium in the World Cup for both skiers.
Even though the slope itself did not look too challenging today, the course setting created more than a problem to many of the top skiers, with only 21 athletes eventually making it to the finish in the second run.
Henrik Kristoffersen, Alexis Pinturault and Daniel Yule were not able to finish today's race, with the Norwegian straddling in run 1 and the French and the Swiss not able to finish the second run. Daniel Yule was in the lead after the first run.

Viktoria Rebensburg Wins Garmisch-Partenkirchen Downhill

A week after Dressen's triumph, Team Germany celebrates again with Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) who, ten years after Maria Hoefl Riesch victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Downhill brought back the german flag on the top of the podium in home soil. This is the first time that two Germans have won in Garmisch since 2010 since Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Felix Neureuther won in the same season. Viktoria Rebensburg returns to the top of the podium in Garmisch with a spectacular victory. The last time the german skier was in the podium was in Lake Louise where she won the Super-G Race. Today's victory is her first one in a Downhill and her 19th in the World Cup.
Viktoria Rebensburg is the 10th different winner in the last 10 Women's Downhill Races.
"That was crazy", she said of her win. "It was important for me to just stay true to myself and focus on my skiing".Federica Brignone showed again that she is one of the best skiers in the circuit at the moment and finished second +0.61 seconds behind Rebensburg. She proves her perfect skiing condition with the third straight podium finish in a downhill that helped her close the gap to overall leader Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) to 190 points.
Ester Ledecka completes the podium and finished +0.83 seconds behind the leader. She has been off the pace in recent races, but she claimed the tricky and icy Kandahar slope in third maintaining her third position in the downhill standing.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Preview

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the former twin cities "under the Zugspitze", is one of the most famous ski resorts of the whole alpine region. The Bavarian town hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1936, the Arlberg Kandahar races since 1954, FIS Ski World Cups since 1970, the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1978 and 2011 and the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in 2009. For that reason, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is been considered the cradle of ski racing in Germany.

Chamonix Preview

The Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley hosts two Men World Cup events on "La Verte des Houches": a Slalom and a Parallel Giant Slalom. The best skiers in the world have come together on the Verte des Houches to compete in the 20th edition of Kandahar.
Chamonix hosted the first winter Olympic Games in 1924, and in 1937 the World Championships were held on the pistes of Les Houches.
The Kandahar event has been part of the valley’s history.
Created in 1928, it was the first international alpine competition to combine Downhill and Slalom events. The Arlberg Kandahar takes place successively at St. Anton (Austria), Garmisch Partenkirschen (Germany) and, since 1948, at Chamonix Mont Blanc in France. The ski piste known as ‘La Verte’ in Les Houches has been reconfigured to host the Parallel Giant Slalom.
The first World Cup Race took place in Chamonix in 1968. After a 4 year break, the World Cup returns to the city of Mont Blanc.

 

17th Glacier Bike Downhill Race in Saas-Fee

March 14th, 2020 is the date. The 17th annual Glacier Downhill Bike Race will be held again in Saas-Fee. This is no usual ride over hill and dale. Rather this race goes over ice and snow down to the glacier village. The riders will start en mass at 3’500m. During the first half of the race, enthralling fights are guaranteed to ensure the lead position. It’s a race without spikes and of high velocity, with riders reaching speeds of 144 km/h.
The mass start is on the Mittelallalin station at an altitude of 3’500m and goes down over the snowy and icy slopes to the glacier village at 1’800m. They will start in different blocks. The starting block allocation is made based on the ranking point of the previous years.
The riders have to manage 1’700 meters of altitude difference and 7 km of distance. First, they ride on a narrow trail along the Fee glacier, which leads them to the panorama hill. For less experienced racers this is a real challenge. The hill is steep and has to be crossed at high speed. On this part of the trail, riders have been measured, per GPS, traveling at speeds of about 144 km/h.
Further down, the ride leads past the restaurant Morenia before entering the Valley run. This is going to be a very exciting part of the race with extremely steep passages, flat transits, and narrow curves, and it is a real assessment of the rider and his material. The last part of the ride, a very flat passage, needs strength to be managed. The outcome of the race is often decided during this section of the course.

The Ski Racing Podcast By Ed Drake. S2. E14. Rosa Khutor and Garmisch Review

Alexis Pinturault Wins Garmisch-Partenkirchen Giant Slalom

Alexis Pinturault celebrates today his 4th victory of the season and his second one in Giant Slalom. The Frenchman stormed from the fourth place in the first run to his 27th World Cup victory. He wins 0.16 seconds ahead of Loic Meillard (SUI) and 0.24 of Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen (NOR).
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) is a special place for Alexis Pinturault. Here, Pinturault (FRA) achieved a victory at the 2009 Junior World Championships and won his first Giant Slalom World Cup race in 2013.
Despite very difficult conditions due to warm temperatures, a salted track, and the rain, Alexis Pinturault was able to fight hard in a bumpy second run and to end in the first place.
Pinturault commented at the end of the race: "I wasn't at my best since the end of December, but I worked a lot and today everything was perfect. I won my first World Cup Giant Slalom here in Garmisch and it's also the place where I won the Junior World Championships in 2009. Here it's special for me!".

Loic Meillard (SUI) was leading the board after a solid first run. The Swiss talent was able to keep up with the best ones even in the second run to achieve the second Giant Slalom podium of his career, finishing 0.16s behind the French.
Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen (NOR) was able to master both runs without any big troubles. The Norwegian achieved today his second podium of the season after closing in the third position already in Beaver Creek's Giant Slalom in early December 2019.

Austria's Men Ski Team ends up with the worst result on record in a World Cup Race after the Giant Slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Manuel Feller was the only Austrian to qualify for the second run and the Tyrolean skier dropped from 16th to 28th place.

Federica Brignone Wins Rosa Khutor Super-G

After the cancellation, due weather conditions (snow, rain, and warm temperatures), of the first four days of the women’s speed program at the venue of the 2014 Sochi Games, Rosa Khutor successfully held its first World Cup competition since the Olympics. The course crew undertook an aggressive grooming and watering regimen to restore the track in time for Sunday’s Super-G.

The Italian team has continued with its incredible demonstration and today has taken the first two places of the podium with Federica Brignone and Sofia Goggia. Joana Haehlen of Switzerland was third, 0.34 seconds back.
Federica Brignone takes his fourth World Cup win of the season in Rosa Khutor.
With fourteen victories Federica Brignone slowly approaches the most winning Italian skiers in history: Isolde Kostner with 15 and Deborah Compagnoni with 16 World Cup victories.
"I have to say that super-G is my favorite discipline. It’s always the one I prefer, the one I have more fun [in], but for sure I’m really proud of how I’m skiing this year. In years like this, normally I’m really good at steep parts when it’s really technical, especially in Super-G, but now I’m getting better at every single race and in every condition so I’m really proud and really happy about this", said Brignone. "Today, I wanted it so bad after my fall in Bansko – five gates from the finish line". Federica Brignone became the fourth different winner of a women's Super-G this season, after Viktoria Rebensburg, Sofia Goggia and Mikaela Shiffrin won the previous events. This victory sent her at the top of the Super-G standing by 16 points over Corinne Suter (SUI) and 20 ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin (USA).

For Sofia Goggia is the second podium of the season after her victory in the Super-G on St. Moritz in December. Goggia has returned after missing the last two races with a right leg injury following a Downhill crash in Bansko.

Joana Haehlen earned the second top-three result of her career following her podium in the Downhill of Bansko.

Thomas Dressen Wins Garmisch-Partenkirchen Downhill

German speedster Thomas Dressen found the right line and won the 4th World Cup race of his career in a tight victory in front of his crowd.
Thomas Dressen takes his second World Cup win of the season in Garmisch-Partenkirchen followed by Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (+0.16) and Johan Clarey (+0.17).
Dressen's victory comes 28 years after the last German, Markus Wasmeier, won the decline in the German place.
He opened the race with bib 1 and skied a nearly perfect Downhill. Once he sat in the leader's seat, he never got up again. The German broke out in a cold sweat as top athletes like Beat Feuz, Aleksander Kilde and Vincent Kriechmayr tried to attack the first position through their performances. Thanks to a very fast last section however, no one was able to take the victory away from the German.
It's a dream come true for the guy from Mittenwald. In front of his own fans, it's a victory that means even more for Dressen.
"There are some parts on every course where I know I’m not able to gain any time, where it makes no sense for me to risk it there", said Dressen. "Today I tried to focus on the basics – what went wrong in Kitzbuehel, ski clean and have fun, knowing where I could be fast, and where I had to hang tight".
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) performed amazingly well, as he often did this season and closed in second place (+0.16s). The Norwegian was very fast in the middle section, but not fast enough through the last gates to claim the first victory of the season. Today's results grant Kilde the first Downhill podium of the season and the current second position in the overall standings.
Johan Clarey (FRA) is the third protagonist of the day. The 39-year-old French skier seems to get better with age and keeps up the momentum, finishing third, just 0.01s behind Kilde.

Today's race was the last Downhill for Peter Fill. "Skiing was my life for so many years, so it's very hard to say stop, but it feels like the right decision right now", he said on an emotional farewell.
Fill says goodbye after 354 races, 22 podiums, and 3 World Cup victories.
He also won a bronze medal (Super Combined) here in Garmisch in the World Ski Championships in 2011 and a silver one (Super-G) in Val d'Isere in 2009.