The 28-year-old Italian repeated her success today on the La VolatA slope.
On Friday, it was Germany's Emma Aicher who finished behind her by just one hundredth of a second. This time, it was Austria's Cornelia Hütter, who started eleventh and finished 63 hundredths of a second ahead of Olympic champion Breezy Johnson, who had been in the lead until then.
Hütter seemed unbeatable until Laura Pirovano, wearing bib number 15, opened the gate. She paid a small price in the early part of the run but then carved out masterful trajectories in the most technical section of the course, a terrain that the Italian national team athletes know particularly well, as it is their training base during the winter season thanks to the Piste Azzurre project.
The Rendenese woman built her triumph on the "walls of the Poet", taking inspiration from them to turn her weekend in Fassa into authentic poetry.
Beyond the home advantage, which was exploited to the full, the difference was made by Pirovano's attitude and, above all, her skiing, which had seen her miss out on the podium by a matter of centimetres on too many occasions. Just over thirty centimetres were enough to earn her two victories yesterday and today, a dream cultivated with tenacity and determination, realised in front of her home crowd. Hütter was second by just one hundredth of a second, third was Corinne Suter, who started in eighteenth place, keeping the 2,000 spectators who had flocked to Passo San Pellegrino in suspense. The Swiss, who was in the lead in the first three sectors, then slipped to third place, 5 hundredths of a second behind, after losing 35 hundredths in the final section.
Pirovano also took the red bib as leader of the Downhill World Cup standings, climbing to 436 points, 28 more than Emma Aicher, who had to settle for twelfth place today, 1.06 seconds behind. With Lindsey Vonn, third in the standings with 400 points, out due to injury, it looks set to be a two-horse race for the crystal globe, although mathematically the other German Kira Weidle-Winkelmann (fourth with 351 points) and Austria's Cornelia Hütter (344) are still in contention. The final challenge will take place in Norway, during the finals of the top international circuit.
Returning to today's downhill, with the top three finishers separated by just 5 hundredths of a second, the American Breezy Johnson took fourth place, 0.64 seconds behind, followed by the German Weidle-Winkelmann in fifth, 0.68 seconds behind. The Italian team placed another athlete in the top 10, Nicol Delago from Val Gardena, who was in contention for a podium place until two-thirds of the way through the race and eventually finished ninth at 1.03 seconds, just ahead of Sofia Goggia, who was eleventh at 1.05 seconds. Precious World Cup points also went to Nadia Delago (17th at 1.24), Roberta Melesi (23rd at 1.58), South Tyrolean Sara Thaler (25th at 1.63) and Elena Curtoni (26th at 1.91), while Asja Zenere finished just outside the top 30 in 31st place. Ilaria Ghisalberti came 41st.
In tomorrow's super-G, Sunday 8 March, the spotlight will be on Sofia Goggia, who leads the World Cup standings in the discipline with 420 points, followed by New Zealand's Alice Robinson (336) and Germany's Emma Aicher (304). American Mikaela Shiffrin will also be back in action, leading the overall standings with 1133 points, ahead of Aicher with 1016 and Switzerland's Camille Rast with 963. Goggia is fourth with 824 points.
Tomorrow, starting at 10:45 a.m., the registered athletes will compete again on the La VolatA track, this time in a super-G.
It will be broadcast live on Eurosport 1 from 10:30 a.m., as well as on all major TV channels around the world, for a total of over 130 broadcasters.
