Slovenia's Stuhec sweeps World Cup speed races in Val Gardena
Overcomes mistake to narrowly win super-G after Tuesday's downhill victory
Slovenian skier Ilka Stuhec overcame an error in the middle of her run to win a World Cup super-G on Wednesday and sweep the speed races on the Saslong course in Val Gardena, Italy.
Following her downhill victory from Tuesday, Stuhec finished a slim 0.05 seconds ahead of Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein and Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria, who tied for second.
WATCH | Stuhec sweeps Val Gardena World Cup speed races
Stuhec's run was far from perfect. She lost her balance for an instant near the start then ventured way out wide midway down, hitting a gate as she slammed on the brakes to make it back into the course.
"I focused on the start a lot and then I leaned too much to the left and almost fell over," Stuhec said. "Then the mistake happened but I was just like, 'Don't panic and keep pushing the skis until the finish.' So I was surprised when I saw that I was fastest."
Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., finished 15th. Roni Remme of Collingwood, Ont., and Valerie Grenier of St-Isidore, Ont., did not finish.
With Zan Kranjec winning a men's giant slalom in Saalbach, Austria, about an hour after Stuhec's victory, it was a rare single-day double for Slovenia.
WATCH | Kranjec 1st Slovenian to win men's World Cup giant slalom
Stuhec missed all of last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during a crash while training on the glacier in Pitztal, Austria. The season before, Stuhec won the gold medal at the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and captured the season-long World Cup downhill title.
It was the ninth World Cup win of Stuhec's career and her third in super-G.
Jasmine Flury of Switzerland missed the podium by one hundredth of a second in fourth. Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway finished fifth.
Mikaela Shiffrin retained her overall World Cup lead despite sitting out these races to rest up for a big block of upcoming technical races -- her specialty. The American leads Schmidhofer by 330 points.
Lindsey Vonn was also missing, with the all-time women's wins leader expected back from injury next month.
Ledecka sets personal mark in super-G
Olympic super-G champion Ester Ledecka finished 11th for the best World Cup super-G result of her career. Ledecka, who also won the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Games, won a snowboard World Cup event on Saturday.
I wish we could come back here more often and maybe do the downhill with a little bit more difficult course.— Liechtenstein skier Tina Weirather on Val Gardena after Wednesday's World Cup super-G
The races were originally scheduled for Val d'Isere, France, last weekend but were moved because of a lack of snow in the French resort.
Weirather has won the season-long super-G title the past two seasons.
"The snow was really nice therefore we really had to push hard," Weirather said. "It was kind of easy, which makes it hard to be fast."
It's the first time that the Saslong course hosted women's World Cup races, despite being a classic stop on the men's circuit for a half-century.
"I wish we could come back here more often," Weirather said, "and maybe do the downhill with a little bit more difficult course."
Added Stuhec: "I totally agree. I love it here."