Rebensburg Finishes Off First Speed Series With a Win

By Published On: December 8th, 2019Comments Off on Rebensburg Finishes Off First Speed Series With a Win

Sunday afternoon the women’s speed series in Lake Louise wrapped with a win for Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg in the super-G. Rebensburg, well known for her prowess in the giant slalom, finished off last season in Andorra with a big super-G win after five years of missing the top step in the discipline. Originally, making super-G a big part of her program was not the plan. At 30-years-old, Rebensburg has had to become more conscious of her energy distribution skiing a multi-discipline program. But after this weekend, it’s back on the table.

“Right now when I look at my results, the speed results are better than the GS results but for sure my goal is also in the GS,” said Rebensburg. “And now I can ski fast in this discipline too and I also want to be back on the top of the podium in GS so that’s why I need to put in a little more work in this discipline and find my right feeling again. I had a good transition from GS to speed, we’ll have to see how it’s going to be the other way around from speed to GS.”

The transition into the super-G is an awkward one. Multidiscipline athletes already have a few tech races under their belt coming into Lake Louise. The athletes spend the entirety of their week preparing for the downhill in training. Then after two downhill races, comes the super-G, a discipline that carries similar speeds to downhill on a more technical course.

Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) and the German team celebrate on the final day of the Lake Louise speed series. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Mario Kneisl

“It’s one of the trickiest events, maybe the trickiest event because you do only get one run but you don’t get training and the speeds are super high but the technique is kind of similar to GS,” said Sunday’s 10th place finisher, Mikaela Shiffrin. “So you kind of have this combination of everything all wrapped up into one event. And you have to nail it on the first run, you can’t back off, you have to fully attack with full aggression and like I said still be precise. Most of the winning super-G runs have maybe a mistake but as long as it doesn’t cost too much time it’s because that skier is being really aggressive. And there’s a fine line between how much time mistakes cost versus creating speed.”

On Sunday, Rebensburg was able to ride that fine line between aggression and precision, executing the cleanest run of the day. Even she mentioned that she was a bit nervous about how smooth her run felt, sometimes getting late in the super-G is a positive sign that you’re being aggressive and you’re pushing she said. Most women came into the Fishnet section of the course packing some speed and then got late and low. After that, the course showed minimal opportunities to regain speed, particularly at the bottom of the course, which was flat and slow. The course workers in Lake Louise had their hands full as fresh snow came in each night, leaving the course softer than it has been in previous years, which to athletes like Shiffrin who excel on hard surfaces, was a disadvantage.

“I’ve had trouble with the transition in the past, going downhill to super-G,” said Shiffrin. “Last year it went really smoothly, but I also felt like the surface last year was a little bit harder and this weekend they’ve been battling a ton of snow. It was much better than I expected it to be but when it’s not quite as hard I don’t always pull off the kind of turns that are what make me fast, and that’s something I’m working on with speed – being able to do it with conditions that are maybe not as suitable for me. But somebody’s gotta do it so I want to be able to be that person.”

Nicol Delago (ITA) celebrates in the finish after skiing into second from bib 31. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Mario Kneisl

The only other athlete who demonstrated promise to come from behind and take Rebensburg’s lead was Italy’s Nicol Delago, starting in bib 31. Her run went about as smoothly as it could, and when she skied into the finish, realizing she was in second place, she was elated. Delago has had some success in downhill, earning her first career podium at her home mountain, Val Gardena, in December 2018. Sunday’s second-place finish is the 23-year-old’s first podium in the super-G. Delago’s sister, Nadia also competed for the Italians in the super-G, and scored her first career super-G points.

“I did not expect this, I expect more success in downhill,” said Delago. “Today I just wanted to have fun and I did and I couldn’t be happier. I get to celebrate with my team and with my sister so today is a perfect day.”

Alice Mckennis of USA in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women’s Super G on December 8, 2019, in Lake Louise Canada. (Photo by Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom)

Once again, the Austrian women proved that they are the team to watch in speed this season. Five athletes finished in the top 10, including Saturday’s downhill champion Nicol Schmidhofer and podium finisher Stephanie Venier.

Just outside of the top 10, the USA’s Alice McKennis followed up her 10th place finish in the downhill with another strong finish, this time skiing into 13th in the super-G, a career-best finish in the discipline at the Lake Louise venue. Her teammate, Alice Merryweather also had a career-best finish in the super-G, placing 23rd overall. While she’s not one hundred percent satisfied, she said it’s a step in the right direction. Overall Lake Louise demonstrated the Americans have the strength to excel in speed this season across the team, and morale and energy are high heading into the next speed event in Saint Moritz the upcoming weekend.

Super-G Top 10

  1. Viktoria Rebensburg (GER): 1:20.00 – Stoeckli/Lange
  2. Nicol Delago (ITA): +0.35 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  3. Corinne Suter (SUI): +0.42 – Head/Head/Head
  4. Stephanie Venier (AUT): +0.53 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  5. Mirjam Puchner (AUT): +0.77 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  6. Tamara Tippler (AUT): +1.06 – Salomon/Salomon
  7. Federica Brignone (ITA): +1.07 – Rossignol/Lange
  8. Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT): +1.10 – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  9. Tina Weirather (LIE): +1.11 – Head/Head/Head
  10. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA): +1.18 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

For full results, click here.

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About the Author: Mackenzie Moran

Born and raised in Metro-Detroit, Michigan, Mackenzie grew up ski racing all over the Mitten.​ She moved out west in search of mountains and attended the University of Oregon, where she achieved degrees in Journalism and Environmental Science. She raced USCSA and was captain of the UO Alpine Ski Team.