“It’s incredible. I still have a hard time believing it, such a beautiful day!” The Frenchwoman of Romane Miradoli won the first World Cup race of her career on Saturday at the super-G in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), ending a 17-year shortage for French skiers in speed.
Miradoli, 27, beat two of the stars of world skiing, the American Mikaela Shiffrin by 38/100 and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, Olympic champion, by 88/100. The Italian Federica Brignone, 9th, won the small specialty globe, before the last super-G in two weeks in Courchevel.
More than 17 years of scarcity
With bib number 8, Miradoli took all the risks to set the best time, failing to make mistakes several times on a difficult course which brought out around fifteen skiers. Under the eyes of tennis legend Roger Federer, who came as a neighbor to the finish area, the skier from Flaine (Haute-Savoie) achieved the greatest performance of her career, she who had never done better than 5th on the world circuit.
It has been more than 17 years since a French woman won in speed at the World Cup, since Ingrid Jacquemod’s success in the downhill of Santa Caterina (Italy) in January 2005. The last victory in the super-G , it was Carole Montillet in Haus im Ennstal (Austria) in February 2004.
Regular in the top-15, Miradoli has been able to raise her level even further since her return to competition three months ago, after suffering a serious knee injury in December 2020. Behind her, Shiffrin got up after the catastrophic Olympic Games (zero medals in six races, three outings). Her 11th podium of the winter allows her to take a 67-point lead in the general classification over her Slovak rival Petra Vlhova, only 18th on Saturday.
Tessa Worley took 6th place, Laura Gauché 9th, Tifany Roux 25th. Skiers continue on Sunday with a giant in the Graubünden resort.