(Saalbach) At the end of the suspense, the Austrian Cornelia Huetter won the final downhill of the winter in Saalbach (Austria) on Saturday, winning the globe of the specialty which seemed promised to Lara Gut-Behrami, already winner of the rankings general, super-G and giant this season.
Tension rose suddenly on Saturday in the small Austrian resort which will host the world championships in 2025. Bib part 12 after a start to the race marked by several interruptions linked to the wind, Cornelia Huetter woke up her audience by crossing the line she arrived half a second ahead of her competitors who left before her, temporarily taking the lead in the race and especially in the specialty classification.
Installed on the “hot seat”, the chair where the provisional leaders wait, the 31-year-old Austrian had difficulty realizing that she had just destroyed the race.
But a few minutes later, when Lara Gut-Behrami (bib 15) crossed the finish line with an 11e provisional place, Huetter understood that she could indeed win her first globe, more than 12 years after her World Cup debut. She then burst into tears as her teammates jumped into her arms to congratulate her.
At the same time, the journalists and the Swiss and Austrian teams were making their calculations: nothing was yet decided and Gut-Behrami, already victorious in the big crystal globe, that of the giant and that of the super-G this winter, could still win the one for the descent if one or two other skiers passed in front of Huetter.
PHOTO ALESSANDRO TROVATI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lara Gut-Behrami
The Austrian public therefore trembled until the end, uttering cries of stress as they saw the Italian Nicol Delago, part number 17, regain time at the end of the course (finally 3e at 49 hundredths) then watching the Slovenian Ilka Stuhec hurtle down the track, threatening until the end to take the lead of the race (finally 2e to 17 hundredths).
Cornelia Huetter was finally able to breathe after the last athlete had passed and went to the foot of the track to enjoy her sixth World Cup victory and her first globe in front of an audience committed to her cause.
“I would never have imagined that,” she explained afterwards at a press conference, all smiles. “I wanted to ski hard and that’s what I did, but to have the globe on top of that, it’s unbelievable, I don’t have the words. »
Mowinckel’s farewell
Lara Gut-Behrami had difficulty hiding her disappointment. The 32-year-old Swiss, who had a comfortable lead in the discipline rankings before the race, ultimately only took 17the place on Saturday, by far his worst result of the season in downhill.
The Ticino, who parted ways this week with her Spanish physical trainer Alejo Hervas, therefore lets slip away a fourth globe which was reaching out to her this season. But she still concluded an exceptional winter with eight victories (16 podiums) and above all three globes: her second big crystal globe (general classification), her first globe in giant and her fifth in super-G.
“I wanted to do better but I struggled to ski fast today,” reacted Gut-Behrami. “But it’s still an incredible season, I never imagined I’d be so successful. Today was not the best day but that’s how we build the future,” said the woman who cast doubt last summer on the rest of her career, but who affirmed Saturday wanting to continue at least “one more season”.
The last race of the winter was also marked by the farewell to the white circus of the Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel, who is retiring at the age of 31 after 248 World Cup starts (four victories, the last on the Cortina descent of Ampezzo in Italy in January), two Olympic silver medals and two world third places.
If the weather permits (snowfall is forecast), the Ski World Cup concludes on Sunday with the men’s downhill, a suspense race with the return of the duel between the Swiss genius Marco Odermatt and the French sensation Cyprien Sarrazin, who will compete for the specialty globe.