WOMEN'S World Cup 2022-2023

[Swede]

Kind of epic.

 

[Parnellia]

Let’s not forget Lara Gut skied like her old self and it bodes well for the season.

With W’s slalom looking very competitive with lots of different potential winners it might be possible for a speedster to win overall? Or did the speed cancellations zilch that?

Wish Alice Robinson would snap out of it. I love watching her and Gut ski, beautiful power and technique.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Kind of epic.

Yes, Killington really pulled this off. And despite the sceptics that didn't believe they could.

 

[4ster]

Seems to me she left the Start House with the wrong mindset, and wasn't able to change to "attack mode" mid-run.

Yup, I knew it was over for her 4 gates In… oh well. She just never got into the rhythm of the ruts.

Holdener & ASL on the other hand both smoked the top & even with Anna’s slip she was able to keep it going down the pitch & into the finish.

Wendy is skiing the best I have ever seen her. Even at Levi you could see a change in her stance & maybe even her alignment. Whatever it is, it keeps her moving through the turns & she’s able to juice it more often than not.

Too bad it got so warm but still a great race & absolutely amazing & satisfying to see Holdener win one. I am sure ASL will win more & I hope Wendy does too!

 

[Teppaz]

I was so elated about Wendy's win! She's among my favorites on the WC circuit and I really thought she'd go down in the history books as the most podiums in slalom without ever getting onto the highest step. I agree she's been really dialed in so far. Working out well with Vlhova being a bit out of it so far.

 

[Moose32]

Yup, I knew it was over for her 4 gates In…

Are we the same person?
I was saying same thing even before her lead went to ~.3 to ~.1. About 4 or 5 gates in, it seemed over as she was skidding, standing on both skis, and not attacking.
Onward...

 

[smctigue]

Michelle G looked so tentative both runs.

 

[James]

Yeah with ASL’s error, we thought the door was wide open for Mikaela. Pretty much everyone was losing lots of time on the last 1/3 or so of the pitch.

Seemed kind of from that sign down they were losing even more time. After sometimes astonishingly, losing a second on top.

Eventually, they’ll churn the ice into the snowpack. Late season there’s often hard icy chunks floating in the corn, like the aggregate in concrete.

Racing down the final pitch known as Preston’s Pitch, named for the founder of Killington, Preston Smith.
Not sure which year that photo is.

April 10, 2021
The bumps get big. At some point they mow them down and start over. In late spring it only takes half a day to a day to grow the moguls.

 

[wooglin]

Killington did a good job with the buses. I parked down at the Skyeship, 5.5 miles away. Worked out great.

Glad they got it together. I was completely unimpressed with the fan logistics on Saturday.

 

[BrianB]

Franziska Gritsch held the lead forever on the second run. She seemed upset in the finish, looking like she didn’t do well. Just judging from her reaction, I expected her time to be beat quickly. Nope.

Racer after racer after racer was losing up to around a second to Gritsch in the last split time, which the timing is right around the yellow arrow in the picture. I think she was able to ski a more direct line through the final gates, which the other first few starters in the second run either did not recognize or were not able to execute and then once the ruts developed enough the opportunity was lost.

Glad they got it together. I was completely unimpressed with the fan logistics on Saturday.

I think there were way more people on Saturday than they expected. Lines for food In between runs were unbelievably long. Even the line to wait just to enter the lodge was insane. I waited a whole hour to get a coffee from the truck outside. It was an actual hour, timed with the stopwatch on my phone. Lots of people came to watch Noah Kahan perform, the crowd for the performance was huge, way more than I remember from other years, which certainly did not help, people were packed in way back past the area in front of the stage. I had never heard of him, but then I am middle aged. There were lines for the porta potties, which I don‘t remember happening since the first time in 2016. I was also a bit disappointed with the logistics and we are probably not the only ones. But probably they were caught off guard. There were far fewer people today, and everything seemed to work well.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I missed the race. How was Paula M?

 

[4ster]

I missed the race. How was Paula M?

Looked balls out & fast till she went out!

 

[Rudi Riet]

That’s some great stuff Rudi, great shot of Mrs Worley and her Rossi’s !!

All the action shots are the work of @AaronFM - he rocks! My shots are marked and are mostly from the finish area media zone (i.e. interview central depot).

How did the snow hold up at Killington?

Day one it was just about perfect if you asked any racer: solid with a tiny amount of grip, very fair all day long. It was probably the hardest surface the women will see all season and all of them raved about it.

Day two it was fine for the first 15 or so athletes then the warm air and sun (the latter of which wasn't expected) roasted the surface to a peeling mush. For the second run the options for the race crew weren't great. They could either let it be and simply hope it didn't break down too much, sending slip crews every few athletes. Or they could treat it with chemicals and watch it hold for the first 10-or-so athletes, then chunk up and become super sketchy.

They opted for the former, which was the right call in the end. The course did break down rather quickly but it did so in a way that was consistent and predictable, with the ruts and holes developing progressively. While it wasn't quite as level a playing field as it was on Saturday it was still a good racing surface.

That said, nobody felt great about their runs on it. ASL and Holdener both said they doubted their speed when they crossed the line because it felt very rough. Only Gritsch had semi-decent feelings about her run and that's only because she was the first racer on course and could ski the exact line she wanted - she was the only athlete who had that luxury, and she certainly took full advantage.

 

[Average Joe]

Glad they got it together. I was completely unimpressed with the fan logistics on Saturday.

Unfortunate that they enforced capacity limits on the new base lodge (which has the ambiance of a shipping container). Long lines for food, bathrooms, and many people gave up trying to get inside the lodge.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Reports are the attendance on Saturday was 21,000. A record for Killington and probably any womens WC race ever.

 

[Average Joe]

Reports are the attendance on Saturday was 21,000. A record for Killington and probably any womens WC race ever.

They did an amazing job. That the race trail was almost 100 percent grass two weeks ago to a fully prepared and injected WC piste inside a 10 day window is an impressive accomplishment.

The old base lodge, now gone, allowed for a much larger vendor and concert area.

If 21,000 is the "New Normal" for a Womens WC race at Killington, why would the FIS go anywhere else for a season opener?

 

[Average Joe]

I missed the race. How was Paula M?

She went sideways on her first run, hiked a bit, and did not make the flip.

 

[Rudi Riet]

They did an amazing job. That the race trail was almost 100 percent grass two weeks ago to a fully prepared and injected WC piste inside a 10 day window is an impressive accomplishment.

The old base lodge, now gone, allowed for a much larger vendor and concert area.

If 21,000 is the "New Normal" for a Womens WC race at Killington, why would the FIS go anywhere else for a season opener?

Yes, the crowd was thick - having to wade through it to get to and from the media locations was certainly a task. Also challenging: the firm surface on Superstar, which warranted wearing traction devices on your shoes if you didn't want to crash. The penguin shuffle became the MO on Saturday if you valued your footing.

The only reason FIS would reconsider: climate. Killington managed to pull off a miracle this year because the weather cooperated in precisely the right way. Had the race been one week earlier or later? Probably a failed snow control (certainly the case for one week earlier and possibly the case had the races been scheduled for next weekend - yesterday's rains were torrential and warm). I'm thinking 3 year contracts will be the norm with (hopefully) honest reassessments of the climate situation as things change.

To wit: resorts in Utah or Colorado could have easily hosted tech races as early as the beginning of the month - at least this year. It used to be that FIS awarded the opening races to Park City because they had the climate and snowmaking to pull off early events - they still do, though new mountain ownership has moved the focus away from hosting international competitions. But Utah Olympic Park, Copper Mountain, Loveland, or even Aspen Highland or Ajax could've hosted events this season.

 

[Swede]

The GS held up great. Yesterday’s SL was more like a spring race, but understand temps went up to 6-7 Celcius, so not much to do unless there’s a big huge storage of salt. Crowds are special. How far is it from the big cities? Kind of epic for ASL and Wendy to share their first win, since both have struggled quite a bit for several seasons, having injuries etc.
Sara did another strong SL effort and Hanna AE 11th from 30 someting, working her way down to better starting positions. Did not have a good GS, otherwise she is a normally good GS skier too. She need to pace herself to Hector

 

[Tricia]

I would have never imagined Mikaela not being on this podium.