Alpine skiing: Worley wins in Lienz, which blasted off towards the Olympics

French Tessa Worley during Giant Bormio, December 28, 2021 Dominik ANGERER

In great shape, Tessa Worley won, on Tuesday, the giant World Cup in Linz (Austria), the fifteenth victory in her career, ahead of Slovakian Petra Valhova and Sweden’s Sarah Hector, a little more than a month before the Olympic Games in Beijing (4-20 February). ).

Worley won her first victory of the season in the absence of American Michaela Schiffrin and Swiss Lara Gutt Bahrami, who tested positive for Covid-19, while cases are increasing on the women’s circuit.

Best time in the first round, the French managed to overcome the shortcomings of the second track (the fourth time) contested between light and shadow to maintain a 30/100 lead over Vlhova and 38/100 ahead of Hector.

Eighth in Sölden (Austria) at the end of October, fifth and then fourth at Courchevel last week, Bornandine is gaining momentum this season as a giant and making the discipline science speak to win her first race from Kronplatz (Italy) in January.

Worley, a two-time world champion in the major, has been able to show off her condition before pre-competing in just over a month at the third Olympic Games, where she hasn’t won a medal.

With 15 successes with the World Cup Giants, thirteen years after his debut in Aspen (US) in November 2008, Worley was the third most winning skater in the discipline’s history after Swiss Frien Schneider (20) and Austrian Annemarie Moser-Brühl (16).

In addition to slalom between gates, skaters must dodge Covid-19 at this time, while cases on the track have been building for a few weeks.

Giant reigning world champion Lara Gut Bahrami has been absent since the Val d’Isère stage, and US Olympic champion Michaela Shiffrin announced on Monday that she has tested positive. Poland’s Marina Jacinica Daniel, ranked 7th in the world before the race, also announced on Monday that she was affected, while New Zealand’s Alice Robinson (off the track) and Austrian Katharina Linsberger (25) returned on Tuesday.

After all, Schiffrin retained the lead in the general classification by 93 points over Italian Sofia Goggia, who was 12th on Tuesday.