Federica Brignone leads in super-G, out goes Sofia Goggia

Federica Brignone is leading the super-G of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: she crossed the finish line in the lead with a time of 1’23″41. “I was very quiet, I did not look for the perfect line but to take the turns as fast as I could” stressed the Valle d’Aosta woman to RAI microphones. Until this morning Tiger had in her trophy case 3 medals in Five Circles: 1 silver (giant slalom at Beijing 2022) and 2 bronze medals (giant slalom at Pyeongchang 2018; combined at Beijing 2022)

Sofia Goggia dropped out of the games just as she was skiing great and seemed to be on her way to a major result. Wearing bib number 9, the champion from Bergamo had drawn perfect trajectories in the first part of the Olympia delle Tofane and at the second intermediate she boasted as much as 64 hundredths ahead of Federica Brignone. At the decisive moment, however, the 33-year-old from Bergamo made a few too many mistakes on the technical side, to the point of missing a gate and saying goodbye to the race. “I skied as I know, I skied very strong: the gates were coming so much in my face, I had a slightly tighter line. Federica with all the past months injury was not easy to get to an Olympics like that, honor and credit to her. See you on Sunday at the giant” stressed Sofia.

Elena Curtoni started well: +13 hundredths at the first intermediate, 19 at the second, where she kept the pace. In the last section she lost something, arriving at +55, and closed at 77 hundredths from the top, only one hundredth behind Elena Pirovano: both down from the podium..”I struggled to find the feeling with the snow, I found myself so much on the left immediately, then I didn’t ski badly, but on the flat I made a bad mistake that makes me eat my hands. Still, I am happy with my Olympics, even if medals count: I tried to get one, I kept an all-in attitude. I can&#8217t wait to get back to skiing, I feel good” said the 30-year-old.

“The disappointment is there, medals count. I love this track, the position is not prominent but that doesn&#8217t take away from who I am. I really don&#8217t think I will make it to the next Olympics, I will remember this one for the rest of my life. Now there’s a good part of the season” said Curtoni.