Winter Olympics: Gut-Behrami finally keeps her date with gold in super-G

Beijing: Lara Gut-Behrami finally has her Olympic gold medal. And it came in the event that has caused the Swiss skier so much disappointment on one of sport’s biggest stages as she won the women’s super-G at the Beijing Games on Friday.

Two-time Olympic Alpine gold medallist Mikaela Shiffrin finished a distant ninth, 0.79 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. At least the American finished this time, after skiing out in both her previous races in Beijing.

Gut-Behrami’s Olympic gold comes after two consecutive fourth-place finishes in super-G at the Winter Games.

The 30-year-old has two bronze medals from the Olympics, including one from Monday’s giant slalom. She cried after getting only bronze in the downhill in 2014.

Gut-Behrami had a brilliant world championships last year, winning two gold medals in Cortina, in super-G and giant slalom. But she missed several World Cup races after contracting COVID-19 in December.

Mirjam Puchner of Austria clinched silver in her first Olympic race, finishing 0.22 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. Michelle Gisin was 0.30 behind her Swiss teammate in third.

Defending champion Ester Ledecka failed in her bid to win an unprecedented back-to-back double. She finished 0.43 behind in fifth.

Ledecka became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games with her surprise victory in the super-G in Pyeongchang in 2018. She successfully defended her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom on Tuesday.

The Italians have dominated the women’s super-G this season, winning six out of the seven World Cup races and occupying the top three spots in the discipline rankings.

But Sofia Goggia, who is still hoping to defend her downhill title on Tuesday, decided not to enter the super-G race as she works her way back from a crash last month. Federica Brignone in seventh was the highest-placed Italian.