World Championships 2023: Marta Bassino storms to shock super-G gold, Mikaela Shiffrin forced to settle for silver

ByPete Sharland

Updated 08/02/2023 at 13:59 GMT

It was a day to remember for Marta Bassino as she triumphed in the women’s super-G at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Meribel. Bassino is not known as a super-G specialist, only having four World Cup podiums in her career in the discipline, but showed excellent technique with some fantastic late turns that gave her a time that the other skiers could not beat.

Marta Bassino has never won a World Cup super-G race but she is now an Alpine World Ski Championships gold medal winner in the discipline after a stunning performance on Wednesday.

Bassino, 26, is known as a giant slalom specialist but going out of the gate eighth she put down a fantastic second half of her run to post an unbeatable time.

Whilst the Italian struggled in the first section of the run she flew down in the bottom section, putting in aggressive turns and coping well with the tricky conditions.

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“What a brilliant tactical ski from the Italian giant slalom champion!” roared Nick Fellows on commentary for Eurosport.

“Just holding her nerve, keeping her calm on the high-speed top section and putting down some brilliant turns to take the lead.”

His co-commentator, former British No 1 Finlay Mickel added “That skillset she has, when she gets the hip in she’s still accelerating in the turns, she’s not just holding onto them.”

It was notable during the subsequent skiers that there were plenty of skiers who were ahead of the clock in the first couple of sectors, where Bassino struggled a bit.

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However in the bottom half of the run everyone lost time against the Italian, unable to compete with her aggressive turns that put her ahead of the pack.

The other problem for most of the skiers was one of the gates was being covered by shade. Not only did the lack of sun make that area cooler, it also made it trickier for the skiers to see what the snow was doing.

“Because of the dark it’s so difficult to see that terrain and it’s exactly on the point where it goes from light to dark that it’s happening,” explained Mickel on commentary.

"I’m really, really happy with my skiing and with my all today," said Bassino.

"It’s really a perfect day and I’m still a little bit in disbelief but I’m really happy with how I’m skiing.

"I just tried to ski as I know and it’s incredible and I’m still speechless because it’s strange - it’s my first win in super-G and here at the World Championships it’s something I am yet to fully appreciate it."

The win caps a brilliant start to the championships for Italy, with Federica Brignone taking the win in the combined on the opening day on Monday.

American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin went one gate after Bassino and was one of the skiers who fell victim to Bassino’s second-half speed. Shiffrin had to settle for silver, which moved her on to 12 Alpine World Ski Championships medals for her career.

Speaking afterwards to Eurosport, Shiffrin said: "I felt like I learned from the combined that I have to be much more aggressive with my skiing and with my tactics but also this hill is difficult and it deserves respect for the terrain.

"You have to push the limit but if you go over the limit then it’s even worse. So I was trying to be really strong, really aggressive and also a little bit smart. There was one moment where I thought ‘Oh I’ve lost everything here’ but I was able to keep it rolling to the finish.

"You could see the times, it’s so tight, it’s such a high competition today you can see that right through to Alice [Robinson] at bib 30 so we’re all standing down here with hearts racing for the last hour and a half waiting for someone to come down and push us off. You're thinking ‘I’m getting fourth today, all of these women are coming down.’

"It’s so stressful. It’s exciting to watch if you’re not invested but for us it’s like, eurgh. It's harder to watch than to do. Marta, I could see her in the start, she looks in the right zone. She’s got the flow when she’s going through the course. Now I have to focus on myself and stop looking at Marta."

There was a tie in bronze as Cornelia Huetter of Austria and Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie shared the medal.

Shiffrin forced to settle for silver despite brilliant run in super-G

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