Switzerland woman Gut-Behrami wins Olympic super-g gold, Shiffrin ninth

BEIJING: World champion Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland won her first Olympic gold in the women's super-g at the Beijing Winter Games on Friday.

Gut-Behrami became the first Swiss woman to get gold in the discipline while American star Mikaela Shiffrin came ninth after crashing out in her first two Olympic races and Czech Ester Ledecka in fifth failed to repeat her alpine/snowboard double from 2018.

Gut-Behrami, who earlier in the week won bronze in the giant slalom, posted 1 minute 13.51 seconds on the Yanqing course, just 0.22 seconds ahead of Austria's Mirjam Puchner.

Fellow Swiss Michelle Gisin, a gold medallist in the combined event in Pyeongchang, took home the bronze, another eight-hundredth back.

"I love super-g, I told myself it's not a different course to lots I have skied before," said Gut-Behrami who has claimed half of her 34 World Cup wins in the discipline.

"I was so nervous in the finish someone would come faster," said the Swiss, who set off seventh and had to watch 35 fellow competitors take on the course before her gold could be confirmed. "I am trying to enjoy it, but I think I am going to need a few more days to understand what is going on."

Former World Cup champion Gut-Behrami won her first world titles last year in the super-g and giant slalom. Her only Olympic medal before Beijing was downhill bronze from 2014 as she came fourth in the super-g in 2014 and 2018.

Last she missed several races after first crashing in a St Moritz super-g in mid-December and contracting the coronavirus shortly afterwards.

The 2019 super-g world champion Shiffrin trailed by almost eight-tenth in ninth place, competing after crashing out in her speciality disciplines earlier in the week, the slalom and giant slalom in which she won Olympic gold 2014 and 2018, respectively.

"It's a really big relief to be here now in the finish, having skied a run well. That's really nice for my heart to know that it's not totally abandoning everything I thought I knew about the sport," the American said.

"There's a lot of disappointment over the last week. There's a lot of emotions. Not really easy to reset and know if I was up for the challenge today.

Ledecka gained fame four years ago when she won the super-g and the snowboard parallel race. She repeated the snowboard success this week but fell short in the super-g by .43 of a second.

"I was doing my best, I still feel a little bit like a snowboarder, but I am very grateful for my team because they did an amazing job today. They did an amazing job in these past days to prepare me for the race in such a short time after snowboard," she said.