Overall World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami adds super-G title. Ester Ledecka wins final race
Switzerland's Lara Gut Behrami holds the trophy for the alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G discipline, in Saalbach, Austria, Friday, March 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Alessandro Trovati
SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Lara Gut-Behrami won the World Cup season title in super-G for the fifth time on Friday, doing just enough by placing seventh in the final race won by the 2018 Olympic champion Ester Ledecka.
The 32-year-old Gut-Behrami needed to finish eighth or better to protect her lead in the standings and claim a third crystal globe trophy of her stellar season. The Swiss star, who won her first World Cup race in 2008 at the age of 17, already clinched the overall and giant slalom titles.
In Friday's race, Gut-Behrami's nearest challengers Federica Brignone and Cornelia Huetter were second and fifth, respectively.
Gut-Behrami’s season-long points total in super-G rose to 576, finishing 30 ahead of Brignone. Huetter was 60 points back in third.
“Super-G is the discipline I really love,” said Gut-Behrami, who won Olympic gold in the discipline in 2022. "To win the globe again is unbelievable.”
Ledecka’s clean skiing in the Austrian sunshine was 0.28 seconds faster than Brignone and 0.30 ahead of third-placed Kajsa Vickhoff Lie.
Gut-Behrami skied safely and trailed Ledecka by 0.52, despite clocking the fastest speed at almost 121 kph (75 mph).
Switzerland's Lara Gut Behrami speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G race, in Saalbach, Austria, Friday, March 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Marco Trovati
Ledecka got the fourth World Cup win of her Alpine skiing career — all since the versatile Czech star’s stunning win at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games where she completed an unprecedented double by also taking gold in snowboard, in the parallel giant slalom event.
The women’s ski season ends Saturday with a downhill that could see Gut-Behrami seal another title. She will start 68 points ahead of Stephanie Venier, needing to finish no worse than ninth to top the standings.
A stellar day for the Swiss team saw the men later sweep the podium in their super-G and standout Marco Odermatt seal the discipline title after coming fifth.
Stefan Rogentin got his first career World Cup in a 1-2-3 finish with teammates Loïc Meillard and Arnaud Boisset.
Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G race, in Saalbach, Austria, Friday, March 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Alessandro Trovati
Odermatt, like Gut-Behrami, already had the overall and giant slalom titles locked up and can add the downhill trophy in the season-ending race, on Sunday.
