With Americans Injured, Gut Takes Control!
With Americans injured, Gut taking control (Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom)
On Saturday December 12th, Mikaela Shiffrin hit the snow, then got tangled in the netting on the side of the trail. Shiffrin did damage to her MCL, however surgery would not be needed. Prior to Shiffrin’s injury, the Americans were on a roll. Shiffrin had won 2 races in Aspen Colorado, followed by teammate Lindsey Vonn winning the next 4 races at Lake Louise Canada and Are Sweden. As of that day, Vonn and Shiffrin were #1 and #2 in World Cup overall points. One week later on December 19th, Vonn twisted her knee on a run at Val d’Isere France. This led to her worst showing of the year, finishing 13th and she said “Just didn’t feel good physically today… Going to take a few days off and rest my body” on her Twitter account. Since this time Swiss skier Lara Gut has taken full advantage of the absence of the American duo.
At the beginning of the season Gut was predicted to make the podium with the Americans all year long and the injuries have opened the door for Gut to shine. Gut is a speed racer, meaning her strengths (like Vonn) are in the Giant Slalom, Super G, and Downhill events. Following Vonn’s injury, Gut has won 2 events and came in second in a third.
December 19th - Val d’Isere (France) - Downhill
1 Lara Gut (SUI)
2 Fabienne Suter (SUI) +.16
3 Larisa Yurkiw (CAN) +.41
December 20th - Courchevel (France) - Giant Slalom
1 Eva-Maria Brem (AUT)
2 Lara Gut (SUI) +.17
2 Nina Loeseth (NOR) +.17
December 28th - Lienz (Austria) - Giant Slalom
1 Lara Gut (SUI)
2 Tina Weirather (LIE) +.12
3 Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) +.30
December 29th - Lienz (Austria) - Slalom
1 Frida Hansdotter (SWE)
2 Wendy Holdener (AUT) +.07
3 Petra Vlhova (SVK) +.43
With the strong couple of weeks, Gut has taken over the overall World Cup point race. Gut is leading with 658 points, Vonn is still holding onto second with 500 points, and Hansdotter has moved into third with 476 points. This weekend sets up nicely for Gut to continue her winning ways with a Downhill Saturday and a Super G Sunday in Zauchensee Austria and Hansdotter will have another shot at another Slalom win in Flachau Austria. Shiffrin will not be back for this weekend, as she is just beginning to workout with her injured knee. Vonn will be back this weekend and the Downhill and Super G set up nicely for her return. We’ll see if she can get back to her winning ways and challenge Gut for the top of the podium.
The Downhill race Saturday will be shown on NBC Sports at 5:30 ET. The Super G race Sunday will also be on NBC Sports at 5:
