Gut-Behrami finally gets her Olympic gold with super-G win

Agencies | Beijing

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Lara Gut-Behrami finally has her Olympic gold medal, winning the super-G at the Beijing Games on Friday. And it came in the event that has caused the Swiss skier so much disappointment on one of the sport’s biggest stages, reports AP.

Two-time Olympic Alpine gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin finished a distant ninth, 0.79 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. At least the American finished this time, after skiing out in both her previous races in Beijing.

Gut-Behrami’s gold comes after two consecutive fourth-place finishes in super-G at the Olympics. The 30-year-old has two bronze medals, including one from Monday’s giant slalom. She cried after getting only bronze in the downhill in 2014.

There were more tears from her on Friday, and Gut-Behrami wiped them from her eyes as she stared down at the gold medal around her neck after stepping onto the top spot of an Olympic podium for the first time.

Gut-Behrami had a brilliant world championship last year, winning two gold medals in Cortina, in super-G and giant slalom.

She won a super-G in her native Switzerland in December but crashed in another super-G the next day. Shortly afterwards, she missed nearly four weeks of racing after contracting COVID-19.

Her teammate, Michelle Gisin, also had to recover from illness, following a diagnosis of mononucleosis in July. Gisin also cried on the podium Friday after finishing third, 0.30 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.

Mirjam Puchner of Austria clinched silver in her first Olympic race, finishing 0.22 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.

Defending champion Ester Ledecka failed in her bid to win an unprecedented back-to-back double. She finished 0.43 behind in fifth.

Ledecka became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games with her surprise victory in the super-G in Pyeongchang in 2018. She successfully defended her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom on Tuesday.

The Italians have dominated the women’s super-G this season, winning six out of the seven World Cup races and occupying the top three spots in the discipline rankings.

But Sofia Goggia, who is still hoping to defend her downhill title on Tuesday, decided not to enter the super-G race as she works her way back from a crash last month.

Federica Brignone in seventh was the highest-placed Italian.