Lara Gut-Behrami shined in Kronplatz to earn her fifth win of the season and complete a dream Italian Tour with two wins, one second place, and a fifth place. She finished ahead of Sara Hector and Alice Robinson (+1.09) tied in second place.
The 32-year-old Swiss looks unstoppable at the moment and celebrated her 42nd win in the Alpine Ski World Cup. It's her 84th podium in the World Cup, 23 of them were in Giant Slalom.
With her 42nd World Cup victory, Gut-Behrami has tied Sweden's ski legend Anja Pärson in the women's best list in 6th place. From a Swiss perspective, only Vreni Schneider (55 victories) has won more times in the World Cup.
It's her eighth win in the Giant Slalom discipline. She finished in the Top-10 in 26 of the last 28 World Cup Giant Slaloms. She made it to the podium 11 times and won 4 times in the last 28 World Cup Giant Slaloms.
It's her third Giant Slalom win this season. She won the first two Giant Slaloms of the season in Sölden and Killington. The 32-year-old skier from Ticino became the first Swiss woman to win back-to-back World Cup Giant Slalom races since Sonja Nef did it in 2001.
After today's win, Gut-Behrami increases her lead in the Giant World Cup standings over Federica Brignone to 85 points and threatens Shiffrin's lead in the Overall World Cup. She is now only 95 points behind.
Gut-Behrami became in 2023-2024 the third woman to claim at least one World Cup win in 13 different seasons, after Renate Götschl (14), and Lindsey Vonn (13).
"I just feel confident on the skis at the moment so I can attack quite a bit without risking too much. That doesn't mean that I'm tactical, but I just have a good feeling on the skis, then everything feels easier. It's been a few years that I've been working on my Giant Slalom and it's getting even more consistent right now. I always say that Giant Slalom is the base for me, it's the most important discipline" Gut-Behrami said.
"It's really good that we have a bit of a break. The mistake you often make when things are going well is that you hope to race every day. But it’s still a long way until March, and in March there are still races where you can go fast", she added.
Sara Hector achieved today her third Giant Slalom podium of the season.
"I was skiing very well in training, but then to do it in the race, it's never easy. Lara was skiing amazingly well today, it was very nice to see. So, watch and learn for the next race", Hector said.
Alice Robinson, tied in second position with Hector today, also claimed today her third Giant Slalom podium of the season.
"I'm really happy with where my skiing's at at the moment. I feel like I'm in a really good position where I can ski at 95, 90 percent and still be fast whereas in the past I feel like I've either been really fast or completely out of it, so it feels good to be finding a bit of neutral ground with my skiing", Robinson said.