Alpine skiing | Valérie Grenier takes her revenge

Disqualified the day before despite a magnificent descent, Valérie Grenier wasted no time in proving once again what she was truly capable of. The Mont-Tremblant skier took fifth place in the giant slalom at the World Cup in Semmering, Austria, on Wednesday morning.

Twelfth after the first run, Grenier was in an excellent position to obtain his best result of the season. Like Tuesday, the conditions were fine in Austria and the 26-year-old skier had been on her legs since the start of the week.

The previous day, she had delivered possibly one of the best runs of her life, still in giant, by returning the fourth time of the first descent. She was however disqualified when she reached the bottom of the hill due to a false start. Had it not been for this incident, she would have been in an excellent position to fight for the first podium of her career.

So, in a way, she picked up where she left off on Wednesday. The layout was very different from the day before, but Grenier still managed one of the best races of the day despite his bib position.

With a first run of 1:01.18, she knocked on the door of the top 10 for the first time this season. Grenier was at 12^e provisional rank, a good six places given his starting number.

In the second round, she was amazing. The Canadian had the best second run of the day. With a time of 1:03.18, she made sure to finish in the top 5. She beat Mikaela Shiffrin, the eventual winner, by 88 hundredths of a second.

Propelled by a great start, Grenier was solid on her skis from start to finish. She carved every corner like her life depended on it, which allowed her to generate loads of speed. Like a TGV, she crossed the finish line flawlessly, flawlessly, with a smile on her face. Grenier had just delivered one of the finest runs of his career.

She grabbed the lead. She just had to wait to see what the next 11 skiers would do.

With only six skiers left, Grenier was still the leader. Due to an increasingly damaged carpet, Katharina Truppe crashed in the middle of the track and Sara Hector, one of the most consistent skiers on the circuit, missed one of the last gates of the course just after. Grenier’s lot was improving.

However, her ascent was hampered by the four remaining skiers. The Italians Frederica Brignone and Marta Bassino, two talented giantists, followed with better times. Winner the day before, Mikaela Shiffrin, despite a few collisions in the middle of the track and a slip that could have ended her day, beat them. Only Lara Gut-Behrami remained. The Swiss was a victim of imbalance and she was unable to generate more speed than the American. She had to settle for second place.

This is the fifth time in his career that Grenier has finished in the top 5. A first since the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora last January, when she finished fourth.

Two in two for Shiffrin

This is a second victory in 24 hours for Mikaela Shiffrin. Smoking the day before, his victory on Wednesday was a little less decisive. “It’s hard to believe you can win when your transitions aren’t the best. I was a little nervous today considering what happened yesterday,” she said after the race, breathing a sigh of relief, or tiredness.

Nevertheless, each triumph brings her a little closer to history. With his 79^e victory, a figure she did not know after the race, the American is now only three wins from Lindsey Vonn’s record for the most career victories for a woman on the World Cup circuit. “There’s always that voice telling you that you can still win, but my giant slaloms weren’t perfect at the start of the season, so it’s always hard to believe that you can really win. »

She could add another and thus complete the hat-trick on Thursday in slalom.

The American increases her lead in the general classification of the season. She now leads Sofia Goggia by 305 points, which is a considerable gap.

It is the fifth time in 11 races that Shiffrin has climbed to the top step of the podium this season.