Exceptional Malorie Blanc! For her second World Cup race – her first downhill – the 21-year-old Valaisan achieved an extraordinary second place in the St. Anton downhill.
Still in the lead at the last intermediate score, Malorie Blanc was finally preceded by only 7 hundredths of a second by the Italian Federica Brignone. The Czech Ester Ledecka finished in third place, 18 hundredths behind the winner of the day.
Bib No 32, the American Lindsey Vonn, who is attempting a comeback at 40 and who was making her comeback in downhill, did well: she set the sixth time, with a delay of 58 hundredths over Brignone.
The performance of Malorie Blanc, bib No. 46 and who had already shown herself at ease during the only training session held in Austria (third), erases the poor performances of the other Swiss downhillers.
The Ticino Lara Gut-Behrami only took thirteenth place in the Austrian event. The skier from Comano is 87 hundredths behind Brignone. She paid a heavy price for an error made after about thirty seconds of racing, when she seemed to be fighting for a place on the podium. Another favorite, the Italian Sofia Goggia, also made a mistake.
The other Swiss women are further down the rankings. Corinne Suter is in fifteenth place (+0”95), Jasmine Schmitt in 19th (+1”15), Michelle Gisin in 21st (+1”18), Delia Durrer in 35th (+1”84), Stephanie Jenal in 36th (+1”92), Jasmina Suter in 37th (+1”93) and Joana Hählen in 38th (+1”94). Priska Ming-Nufer, who crossed the finish line, was ultimately disqualified.
The speed specialists will do it again on Sunday in St. Anton, during a Super-G (11:15 a.m.).
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