It’s hard to think otherwise: the Kranjska Gora slope, in Slovenia, seems to be the playground par excellence for skier Valérie Grenier. Almost a year after obtaining her first career victory there, the Franco-Ontarian repeated the feat by collecting her second World Cup gold medal in the giant slalom contested on this same track on Saturday.
“I am really happy and proud. It just feels so good […] I don’t know why this slope suits me so well, but it seems to be the last wall which is the place where I ski the fastest,” declared Valérie Grenier from the outset during her interview with Sportcom.
“This is where I won last year. The year before, I finished fourth, she continued. It’s a track that seems good to me, but it adds extra stress because you wonder if you’ll be able to do it again. »
The skier first took fourth position during her first run of the day with a time of 56.90 s. “In my head, I had made several mistakes, but in reality, it was just a big mistake that still cost me dearly. So it frustrated me at the time,” she confided, referring to her first visit.
PHOTO JURE MAKOVEC, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Valérie Grenier during her second descent on the Kranjska Gora slope
“In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was still just fourth after the first round. It was encouraging to see that despite my mistake, I had skied fast and that I was still able to be three tenths of a second behind first,” said Grenier.
Despite weather conditions that slightly soaked the skiers on Saturday, Valérie Grenier managed to stay focused to steal the show in the second run. “We were in the heavy rain. We were completely wet, but otherwise the snow was beautiful. We were still lucky, despite the weather,” she revealed.
Twenty-seventh on the starting list for the second round, the Franco-Ontarian exuded confidence as soon as her skis touched the snow and her technique allowed her to finish with a time of 53.61 s and a cumulative 1 min 50.51 sec.
I wouldn’t say that I did anything extravagant or different, but it was my own ski and without mistakes. It was some good fast skiing, which is something I’ve been looking for for several races.
Valérie Grenier
Behind Grenier, the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami (+ 0.37 s) and the Italian Federica Brignone (+ 0.51 s) completed the podium of this sixth World Cup of the season.
PHOTO GIOVANNI MARIA PIZZATO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lara Gut Behrami, Valérie Grenier and Federica Brignone
The Slovakian Petra Vlhová, provisional leader after the first descent, came close to the top 3 with a slight delay of 10 hundredths of a second on Brignone, queen of the last World Cup in Mont-Tremblant.
For her part, Sarah Bennett, who was also there in Slovenia, was unable to qualify for the second round. His time of 1 min 0.72 s gave him 49the place.