Ski, Elena Curtoni second in the super-G of Kvitfjell. Brignone fifth, outside Sofia Goggia-Corriere.it

For a penny Elena lost the race: yet happy because she returned to lead the specialty rankings. For a mistake on a jump, Sofia risks a dangerous tumble again: sigh of relief, on Saturday 4 March there is the fourth downhill World Cup to be sealed also on the arithmetic level. Facts and chronicle of super-G by Kvitfjellwhere on the 1992 Olympic track the Austrian Cornelia Huetter to triumph with a gap that smacks of mockery for the Italian clan. Elena Curtoni the provisional leader despite a less inspired departure than her rivals. But in the finale she was lightning, especially in the turns named after Tommy Moe (the Canadian world champion of those Games in free climbing) and her performance has already placed her opponents behind her: from Gut-Behrami, who will finish third, to Mikaela Shiffrin who will be condemned to the wooden medal and that she must postpone the engagement with Ingemar Stenmark and his 86 victories in the World Cup, to Federica Brignone, good but not very good (some mistakes will confine her to fifth place).

Everything seemed set for the fourth career success of the Valtellinese when Huetter, tall and powerful (therefore with characteristics similar to the blue one), breaks the eggs in the basket. In the upper part of the command and up to now, given the times of Curtoni, there is. Then she falls back in the central part and in the last split she is still 16 hundredths behind. It seems like a sentence, Elena skied really well and fast in the final stretch. Instead on the finish line there is the paw of the eaglet: 1’26”83 against the 1’26”84 of the blue. Amen, but what a pity.

It was since 3 March 2006, therefore exactly 17 years ago, that the sprinters did not return to compete in Norway. That day the track was not the Olympiabakken, but Hafjell’s Kringelasen: there was a sensational triplet, Lindsey Kildow (she had not yet married becoming Lindsey Vonn)-Nadia Styger-Michaela Dorfmeister. Given the limited waste (1 cent for Curtoni, 12 cents for Gut-Behrami), we still came close to a tie. But this time the chronometer was unmatched even if it sanctioned minimal differences (Shiffrin at 16/100, Brignone at 29/100; and up to the last, for example with Stephanie Venier, bib number 29, there were attempts to foray into the high classification).

We were talking about Sofia Goggia. She hasn’t been seen so incisive and effective in super-G for a long time. She was flying to victory — even the last bearing gave her the lead — but she took a curve too wide and on the next jump she found herself unbalanced. The mistake was too obvious to be corrected: Sofia had to miss the goal and throw away another practically won match. But better not to complain: if the mistake had been less clear she probably would have tried to stay on track, with all the risks involved. Purely for the record, it should be remembered that in that area, in a super-G in 2008, the Austrian Matthias Lanzinger fell disastrously and following the trauma to his left leg he was amputated below the knee.

So that’s fine like this, also because Elena’s second place fuels the magical season of the ski girls: the fourth podium of the season for her, the twenty-second in the year for pink Italy; the ninth first place was lost, but still the eighth, with a trend that could lead to undermining the historical record of the 2016-2017 season (25 top three of the girls out of the 43 overall). It’s a pity to lose for such a discard – commented Curtoni -, but I’m equally happy because I have lifted a weight off myself: in recent times, including the World Cup, I haven’t been able to express myself as I wanted. This time I did it, thanks also to a super-G that was finally fast and characterized by many tactical traits. The primacy in the ranking of specialties? The bibs can be red, yellow, black, green, but the most important aspect is going fast. As for Brignone and Goggia, it is good to see the glass half full: I lost due to smudging and not having skied more, but it was a good test observed Federica. a great pity to have made that mistake – adds Sofia -, but I competed in a “garona” and in super-G it hadn’t happened for a while. Her moment was not this, but the one arriving in less than 24 hours: the free World Cup poker is there to be shown on the table to the opponents.