Swiss Gut-Behrami overcomes stress to seal overall World Cup ski title
Lara Gut-Behrami had an off-day on the Saalbach slope on Sunday but still ended up being crowned women's overall World Cup ski champion.
The 32-year-old Swiss skier claimed her second overall title despite only finishing 10th in the season-closing giant slalom.
With that result the Olympic super-G gold medallist takes an unassailable lead into the final two races of the World Cup season, as well as claiming her first giant slalom title.
"I was very stressed out today because I really wanted to win this crystal globe," said the skier with eight wins and 16 podiums this campaign.
"I skied badly but in the end I ensured that I did enough."
On landing her first giant slalom title to add to her four super-G globes she added: "It's incredible, the giant has always been important to me so to win this globe is just terrific!"
Gut-Behrami is also targeting the super-G and downhill titles and if successful she will join Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn and Tina Maze as the only women in history to secure four titles in a single season.
Sunday's race at the World Cup finals went to Federica Brignone, who goes into the last two events 208 points behind in the overall standings, with only 200 on offer.
Brignone finished only 21 points behind her Swiss rival in the battle for the giant slalom crystal globe.
Gut-Behrami was securing the overall honours eight years after her first large crystal globe.
Looking ahead to next weekend's speed events at the Austrian resort, she has a 69-point lead in the super-G standings and a 68-point advantage in the downhill over Conny Huetter and Stephanie Venier respectively.
Gut-Behrami succeeds Shiffrin, who won the last two overall titles and who called time on her season on Saturday with success in the slalom.
The US ski great is sitting out the last two speed events as she has still not fully recovered from the fall in Italy in January that sidelined her for six weeks.
For Gut-Behrami this has been a remarkable season, 17 years after her elite level debut.
But she was pushed all the way to the closing giant slalom to take the discipline title by her year older rival Brignone.
Following up her win in Are last weekend the Italian veteran led after the first run and kept her cool in the second for a combined time of 2min 20.05sec.
In second came New Zealand's Alice Robinson at 1.36sec with Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway (1.67s) completing the podium.
Gut-Behrami was placed eighth after the first run and 10th after the second, knowing she only had to finish in the top 15 behind Brignone to claim two of the four titles on her radar.
L.McKay--EWJ
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