Federica Brignone leaves everyone stunned and comes close to Top 5 on World Cup comeback

If it is not a sports miracle, it is very close: Federica Brignone took an incredible fifth place in the Plan de Corones giant slalom, a result unthinkable even just a few weeks ago, when the champion from Valle d’Aosta was in the midst of her rehabilitation from the very serious injury suffered at the tail end of the 2024-2025 season. Brignone, seventh in the first run, also managed to move up an’additional position in the second run, thus grabbing a sixth place with significance that goes far beyond the numbers.

From a chronometric point of view, Federica Brignone’s was a solid and clean run, testifying to a very high level of concentration. The seventh place in the first run was improved in the second thanks to a partial time just 44 hundredths slower than that of the winner Julia Scheib, for a total gap, adding it to that of the first run, of 1″23. Only five, then, were the athletes who did better than the Valdostan: Scheib, Camille Rast, Sara Hector, Mikaela Shiffrin and Maryna Gasienica-Daniel.

Just 22 hundredths separated the Polish athlete, who finished in the Top 5, from the Italian star, but she can certainly be satisfied with a result that was not even remotely imaginable a few weeks ago and that gives her enormous confidence in view of Milan Cortina 2026, the five-ring winter event that will see Federica Brignone herself as a protagonist not only as an athlete on the track but also as a flag-bearer in the Cortina ceremony, together with curling player Amos Mosaner.

Federica Brignone’s great performance should not, however, make us forget the more than decent race of Lara Della Mea, who finished in tenth place, confirming the position of the first run and finishing with an overall gap of 1″89. less well in the second run Asja Zenere, who went from twelfth to fifteenth place overall.

The’other blue qualifier for the second run, Alice Pazzaglia, finally finished in 24th position, with 4″84 gap, confirming the result of the first run. On the other hand, bad day for Ilaria Ghisalberti, Ambra Pomare and Anna Trocker, out of the top 30 after the first run, as well as Sofia Goggia and Giorgia Collomb, both out of the race just in the morning.