By Alan Baldwin
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Federica Brignone explained her astonishing Olympic super-G win by saying she felt less pressure as an underdog and it was harder as a favourite, and the evidence from the women's Alpine ski races so far backs her up.
The downhill, team combined and super-G have all thrown up surprise winners, to varying degrees, with 35-year-old Brignone's win vying with all-time U.S. great Mikaela Shiffrin's blank for the biggest shock of all.
Brignone had
all of Italy cheering as she took the hosts' first Alpine gold of the Milano Cortina Games on Thursday after returning to competitive skiing only in January following a career-threatening crash and leg injury last April.
She had been 10th in the downhill last Sunday and the podium, let alone gold, looked unlikely for a skier still battling daily pain from her leg injuries.
"I just thought about skiing my lines, to be always thinking ahead, to let the skis run," she told Italian reporters.
"I tried to be tactically astute, to go with my own rhythm and my curves. I was super-light, zero pressure, an outsider. It's harder to win when you are the favourite."
The gold was the first at an Olympics for the 2025 giant slalom world champion and double overall World Cup winner.
Brignone was the popular favourite but not on results or form, with compatriot Sofia Goggia leading the super-G World Cup standings and racing on a hill where she had won multiple times before.
Goggia was one of 17 who failed to finish, however, including Austria's 2022 silver medallist Mirjam Puchner and Germany's three times silver medallist Emma Aicher.
Brignone's performance drew high praise from New Zealand's Alice Robinson.
"I watched her run and she was just very smooth the whole way down. Wasn't trying to do too much. She just knew where she could push and where she had to pull back, so she nailed it," said Robinson.
FIRST HOME WINNER IN ALPINE SINCE 1994
The last time an Alpine skier won Olympic gold on home snow was Norway's Lasse Kjus in men's combined in 1994 at the Lillehammer Games.
That is not quite the statistic it seems, given that recent Games have been far from the sport's Alpine heartland (China in 2022, South Korea in 2018, Russia in 2014, Japan in 1998), but Brignone clearly felt a lighter burden of expectation.
In the downhill, Breezy Johnson -- a world champion who has never won on the World Cup circuit and been on the podium only once this season -- took gold.
Most of the attention in the run-up had been on World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn, and the American great's crash in the race dominated the headlines.
Johnson then became the overwhelming favourite in the team combined with Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful skier in World Cup history with 108 wins and seven wins in eight slaloms this season.
They failed to medal, finishing fourth and beaten by team mates Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan with Austria taking a surprise gold.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
