Federica Brignone became the oldest woman to win a World Cup super-G race, capping an Italian double win weekend at home in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the 2026 Olympic women’s Alpine skiing host site.
Brignone, 34, prevailed by 58 hundredths of a second over 2022 Olympic gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland.
Another Swiss, 2022 Olympic downhill gold medalist Corinne Suter, was third for her first podium since March 2023.
In her 400th World Cup start, Lindsey Vonn fell coming around a gate 51 seconds into her run, slid and spun down the course for several seconds. She got up on her own and skied to the bottom. Vonn was fifth fastest at an intermediate split about halfway through the course before the DNF.
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“I was skiing really well,” she said. “I definitely made some mistakes on the top. I got a little bit behind the course and tried to pull it off. My skis kind of clicked together, and I lost my balance.”
Vonn had finished 14th, sixth, fourth and 20th in her previous World Cup races since ending a five-year retirement at age 40.
She is the oldest woman on record to finish in the top 30 of a World Cup race. She is one of four women to start 400 World Cups and nine shy of the starts record held by retired Austrian Renate Götschl.
Her early comeback results are promising for her goal of making a fifth Olympic team next year. The U.S. is expected to qualify four spots in every women’s Olympic Alpine skiing race.
Vonn is the most successful skier in Cortina World Cup history with 12 career victories. This past week in Cortina, she fell in a downhill training run on Thursday, then said she made “quite a few mistakes” at the bottom of the course en route to placing 20th in Saturday’s downhill (third among Americans).
“In general, this weekend was really positive, but I couldn’t quite put it together,” Vonn said. “It’s going to take a little time. I think last weekend went so well (sixth and fourth in St. Anton, Austria) that everyone’s expectations were really high. But this is a journey that no one’s taken before. So I’m trying to be patient. I need more training. I need more time. And I think it’s actually kind of a good thing that I didn’t do well this weekend because it leaves me really hungry for more and also, hopefully, for next year. I know that I need to make improvements. I don’t have really any training. There’s a lot of room for improvement. So the fact that I’m as fast as I am with as little preparation as I’ve had is all really positive.”
So far this season, Brignone has become the oldest woman to win a World Cup race in three different disciplines.
On Oct. 26, she became the oldest woman to win any World Cup race in the season-opening giant slalom. On Jan. 11, she earned her first World Cup downhill victory, displacing Vonn as the oldest woman to win in that discipline. Now she has become the oldest women’s super-G winner.
Brignone earned the World Cup overall title in 2020 and the world championship in 2023 in the combined (which is now a team event at the Olympics). She owns three Olympic medals, all silver or bronze.
Brignone and Sofia Goggia, Saturday’s downhill winner, gave Italy a sweep of the weekend races at the 2026 Olympic women’s Alpine venue.
“I have to say that this is my snow,” said Brignone, who also placed third in Saturday’s downhill.
Italy earned zero Alpine medals at the previous Olympics it hosted in 1956 in Cortina and 2006 in Torino.
The women’s Alpine World Cup continues Tuesday with a giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy, and then next weekend with a downhill and super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
NBC Sports’ Andy Dougherty contributed to this report.
