Federica Brignone has 'high expectations' but looking to ski 'free' in Alpine World Ski Championships super-G

Published 07/02/2023 at 20:52 GMT

The women’s super-G on Wednesday could be the highlight of the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships with no overwhelming favourite and most of the sport’s biggest names taking to the start gate. Federica Brignone is among them and she has been talking exclusively to Eurosport about her mindset going into the race, a day on from her alpine combined triumph.

Exclusive: Brignone has ‘high expectations’ but looking to ski ‘free’ in super-G

Federica Brignone admits she has “really high” expectations but is simply looking to ski freely in Wednesday’s super-G at the Alpine World Ski Championships.

The women’s super-G could be one of the most exciting events at the World Championships with Mikaela Shiffrin, Corinne Suter, Lara Gut-Behrami, Ragnhild Mowinckel, Elena Curtoni and Brignone herself among the big list of favourites.

There have been five different winners from five super-G races on the World Cup tour this season and the difficult nature of the Meribel course could favour the more technical skiers.

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“My expectations are really high but my goal is to ski ‘free’, to ski at my best and do my best performance,” Brignone told Eurosport.

“That’s the only thing I can co because I can’t change other athletes’ performance. Our team is really strong, everybody can get a medal.

“I will try my best and let’s see how it goes.”

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Brignone is high on confidence after winning the alpine combined on Monday, where she won the opening run, which was a super-G, and watched Shiffrin dramatically straddle when three gates from home in the slalom.

It meant the Italian won her first major championship gold medal at 32 years old.

Brignone decided to take part in Tuesday’s downhill training, where she was eighth, and she says there was a “good feeling”.

“It was a bit busy, I was really tired last night,” she added.

“But I couldn’t sleep because I was still so excited about the day. In the end I fell asleep, maybe a little bit late.

“This morning I was thinking, should I go to the slope or not. But I think I made a good choice, being on the slope and part of the downhill training. I’m really happy I did.

“I felt good. I did some mistakes but I was just cruising, having fun, trying to be on the edge and trying the rolls of the slope.”

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