On February 23rd, Stockholm hosted fifth City Event of Alpine Skiing World Cup. The relatively new discipline was brought into the mix to bring more crowds, but has sometimes failed to do so and struggled with weather conditions in chosen cities to host the event. However, this year Stockholm hosted the event for the first time and brought the fun of top alpine skiing stars skiing head to head in the search of more points for the Overall World Cup and Slalom Small Globe. This was first City Event since Moscow 2013, where Lena Duerr surprisingly celebrated her first and so far still only win in World Cup.
In front of the huge Swedish crowd supporting their countrymen and women, the Swedish skiers did a phenomenal job. The only thing they failed to deliver though, was the win. Wendy Holdener skied herself to her maiden win on a World Cup circuit, after quite a few podiums already in this season. Beating the “always second” Frida Hansdotter in the final came as a bit of a surprise, but Holdener does have a successful past in this kind of races.
The battle for the third place came between Maria Pietilae-Holmner and Nina Loeseth. Pietilae-Holmner, despite not the favorite in this duel, managed to get herself the win against Loeseth and climb on the podium as well. This made the fans cheer even louder as “their girls” got them two podiums in just one race in the center of their country.
Frida closer and closer…
City Event also counted for the World Cup Slalom standings, where Frida might already be uncatchable. 139 points is the sum that stands between Hansdotter and Veronika Velez-Zuzulova, ranked second in the slalom standings with only two slalom races until the end. Velez-Zuzulova was 99 points behind Hansdotter before today’s race, but didn’t manage to beat her today, as she lost in the Quarterfinals. Sarka Strachova, third ranked in the slalom standings did not attend the race, due to suffering an injury while training in preparation for Stockholm. There are some rumors she might not be able to attend the next World Cup Slalom in Jasna, Slovakia either. With 200 maximum points still up for grabs, it is safe to say Hansdotter is just a few steps away for conquering the Slalom globe she desires. She can already guarantee it in Jasna, but it will all depend on her and Velez-Zuzulova’s form of the day.
The plot thickens in overall standings
Despite both Lara Gut and Lindsey Vonn competing today in hope of earning some valuable points towards each other, they both failed to win their Round of 16 against Velez-Zuzulova and Holdener, respectively. Both gained 15 points, but the point difference between leading Vonn and second placed Gut is still 23 points. With 10 races still to go, we might have to wait until the very last game to find out who’ll carry home the big globe.
Overall Standings (30/40 races):
1. Lindsey Vonn (USA) – 1215 points
2. Lara Gut (SUI) – 1192 points
3. Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) – 878 points