Ski Racing: Austrians Awe

Brem attacked from the start on run one with clean, aggressive, mistake-free skiing that saw her come down with a massive 1.88 second advantage over then leader Anna Fenninger, the victor of the past five giant slalom races. Her lead diminished marginally to 1.14 seconds over Italian Federica Brignone and Zettel heading into run two. Brem modestly attributed much of her success on the run to a new starting position inside the top seven and a lack of mistakes that marked the efforts of pre-race favorites Fenninger and Mikaela Shiffrin.

 

“I managed to fully attack without making any mistakes, that’s probably the reason why the gap is as it is now,” said Brem between runs. “My plan is to fully attack like I’m tenth or something because I think I will never get over it if I’m not attacking the second run.”

 

Brem was clearly in a league or her own today, with high, clean arcs that allowed her to release her edges earlier than her competitors and bring more speed from turn to turn. She came out of the start on run two and stuck to her game-plan, skiing as if she was in 10th instead of in the lead with a massive margin. She skied smart into the early, trickier sections that caught some of the racers off guard and then looked for speed in the rhythm sections to carry her to her first career victory.