Federica Brignone won the Alpine Skiing World Cup overall title for the second time, despite the cancellation of the season-ending downhills in Sun Valley, Idaho, due to wind and snow on Saturday.
Given that the men’s race was cancelled, Marco Odermatt was able to add the discipline globe to his giant slalom, Super-G, and overall crowns.
Brignone placed second overall and in the slalom and giant slalom rankings the previous season.
On Saturday, she stated, “I just wanted to get better. The World Cup victory, however, was a complete surprise. And this is simply breathtaking. The season has been wild.”
The World Cup Finals racing start time was postponed by organisers due to snowfall at the Idaho resort both overnight and in the morning. Rising winds made racing impossible, despite staff efforts to clear the piste.
“This is our sport,” Brignone declared. “An outdoor sport is alpine skiing. You don’t always race, either.
“I wanted really to race, even if it’s strange,” she said.
In the overall rankings, Brignone is ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami by 382 points. After her 2020 victory, the 34-year-old Italian has an unstoppable lead with up to three races left, guaranteeing her second huge Crystal Globe as the overall World Cup winner.
Additionally, she won the small downhill globe for the first time in her career, finishing the season 34 points ahead of her Italian teammate Sofia Goggia and 16 points ahead of Austria’s Cornelia Huetter.
The 34-year-old Brignone, who took home the giant slalom world title in February, has already secured the globe for the giant slalom World Cup and leads Gut-Behrami by five points in the super-G before the last race on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Odermatt defeated Swiss competitor Franjo von Allmen by 83 points in the men’s division after Saturday’s postponement.
“Winning a globe is always something special,” Odermatt remarked.
“Winning a downhill globe is the biggest of the little globes.”
In the previous season, Odermatt also gathered four globes.
“I don’t know what the globe record is, but I’m happy to have lots of them,” he said.
Alexis Monney, another Swiss, rounded out the bottom three.
Odermatt added, “It’s difficult to explain our dominance. If you have a flow in the team, everything is easier for everyone.”
The women’s and men’s super-G finals take place on Sunday, followed by the shorter slalom competitions on Tuesday through Thursday.
