Federica Brignone ready to defend red breastplate

Saturday the Giant in Kranjska Gora

Federica Brignone will lead from the top spot in the specialty ranking a troop of eight Italian athletes in the giant slalom scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 6, on the Slovenian snows of Kranjska Gora. The Valle d’Aosta woman, winner in the technical discipline with wide doors twice this season at Mont Tremblant, is aiming to do well in order to keep the red bib, the symbol of her supremacy in the specialty.

In addition to Brignone, Marta Bassino, Sofia Goggia, Laura Pirovano, Roberta Melesi, Asja Zenere, Elisa Platino, Lara Della Mea and Ilaria Ghisalberti will also descend between the gates of the Podkoren slope. For the latter it is a return to the major circuit, almost two years after her last appearance in the CdM.

Italian women’s skiing boasts in Kranjska Gora, in giant slalom, two triumphs with Marta Bassino (twenty-four hours apart) in 2021; the same Cuneo woman of the Army è was second in 2023 and third in 2022, while Brignone was second in giant slalom in 2012 and 2023. Sofia Goggia won her first podium in the specialty precisely on the Slovenian snows with a third-place finish in 2018, while Nicole Gius boasts a second-place finish in 2007.

The giant slalom World Cup standings see Federica Brignone leading with 400 points, followed by Lara Gut-Behrami with 365, Mikaela Shiffrin with 320, Petra Vlhova with 247 and Sara Hector with 232. The Valle d’Aosta è was champion of the specialty in the 2019/20 season, the year in which she also won the overall World Cup.