Early Speed

    Big Guns loaded. WAWC's budding Chrissy-Martina?

Lindsey smokes St. Moritz. 12 December 2025.

    A superb Speed season is shaping up.

    Three veterans, including a legend, should take the Downhill title down to the wire end of March at Lillehammer.  And a rapidly-developing young talent may be right there with them.

    2xDH at St. Moritz on a slightly shortened track (finish a higher altitude due to low snow), but still fast and highly technical, with several “blind” turns where the gates are on brows and the track drops away right after. The skiers must trust their pre-race inspections and stick to the racing line in their heads. Val d’Isere is one of the longer WAWC DH pistes, very fast with big jumps and hard, swingy turns. St. Moritz is entirely above tree line; Val d’Isere mostly with forest zipping by. Per Alice McKennis Duran’s excellent Val d’Isere commentary, racers often use trees as reference points during runs, to help set up turns. (Similar to the tall pine tree approaching Karussell on Nurburgring’s Nordschleife guiding drivers to the turn’s entry.)

    Lindsey Vonn leads the DH standings by a healthy 69 points after three races. Her St. Moritz  meet was off the scope: a win and a 2^nd in DH, and a 4^th in Super G, at 41 one season back after five years’ off tour. Third at Val d’Isere. She seems to be in peak competitive condition, mind and body. Baring a crash, she has DH podium at least in the bag. (I read she may bail after the Olympics. That’s way cynical; Vonn respects her sport too much. She’ll complete a final glorious season.)

    Sofia Goggia and Conny Huetter are close to top DH form.

    Conny took a strong 6^th at the season’s opening race, then a few awkward/late turns on Saturday landed her 16^th. She ran a closing blinder at Val d’Isere—third fastest on the day by the third timing interval after 13^th and 10^th up top, and 1^st for the final two. She held off superb runs by Kira Weidle-Winkelmann, Vonn, Ilka Stuhec, and Laura Pirovano, who were all T10 each interval. Conny beat Kira by 0.26, with Laura 5^th 0.41 back. The infinitesimal margins in ski racing always amaze me. But elite racing of all kinds is contested so. Referring to the Nurburgring again: in 1965 when the Nordschleife was still in its full 23km/14m glory, Jim Clark beat Graham Hill by 16 seconds over the 15-lap 210-mile race. Clark’s pole lap time was 3.4 seconds faster than Jackie Stewart’s. Insane. (I’m a fan of the 1.5 liter F1 era 1961-65. I think it was the most elegant, and “excepting” 1961’s Monza horror and de Beaufort’s 1964 crash, the overall safest until the mid-90s onward. I saw Jochen Rindt win his first GP, October 1969 at Watkins Glen.)

    Conny Huetter on her winning run - Val d'Isere 20 December 2025.

A wide turn at St. Moritz first race (4th) and a necky off-balance recovery at Val d’Isere (8^th) probably cost Sofia two wins. She was way ahead at Val d’Isere. 3d place Saturday in the second St. Moritz DH got her on track.  

A notch below Vonn's DH triumph (IMO) but probably more significant in the long term, Emma Aicher skied a basically flawless run to win that Saturday’s DH. Starting 15^th, immediately after Vonn took the lead from Goggia by 0.05, Emma cranked up the four intervals’ speed—6^th, 5^th, 2^nd, 1^st—to win by 0.24. She was so good—committed, clean, confident. Emma was 5th in Friday's DH; 10th at Val d'Isere. As we'll see below, Aicher's a key character in WAWC's next decade.

Emma Aicher - early flight St. Moritz DH victory. 13 December 2025.

Emma's a star, alright!

Magdalena Egger, a 24-year-old Austrian with 83 WAWC starts, scored her first podium with a fantastic 2^nd at St. Moritz on Friday’s DH. 4^th, 2^nd, 3d, and 2^nd in the timing intervals, she backed it up the next day with a fine 7^th place. She won 3xgold at 2022 Junior Worlds (GS, SG, DH); maybe she’ll break through this year on the senior circuit.

    Mirjam Puchner, a WAWC major Speed talent with 188 starts, has dealt with injuries, including a tib/fib fracture 2017. Her DH 3d at St. Moritz in the season opener, and 5^th on Saturday, was great to see! Really hope she has a solid, safe season. In form, she’s potential T5 fixture in Speed races.

    Breezy Johnson took 4^th at St. Moritz on Saturday, after 15^th Friday. Then 7^th at Val d’Isere. Her intervals for the second DH—2^nd, 2^nd, 1^st, 4^th—were superb, placing her 0.40 behind Aicher, and 0.11 shy of third place. Very good start, Breez. Ramp it up, smoothly and safely, then podium at Cortina. Johnson copped DH gold at last year’s Worlds. She’s earned another big score.

Mirjam Puchner shucking her St. Moritz DH bib.

Lindsey Vonn reasonably content at St. Moritz....

2xSG and we already have a fascinating season. Goggia (2^nd and 1^st) and Vonn (4^th and 3d) are second and third in the discipline’s standings. Alice Robinson (1^st and 2^nd) leads. Romane Miradoli (2^nd and 9^th) is fourth; Elena Curtoni (6^th and 4^th) completes the top five. As in DH, (the same) two grizzled vets are up against a massively talented young person. And like Aicher in DH, Robinson has a numerically meager but solid SG card prior to this season. (Alice scored WAWC SG 8xT10 through EOS 2025, with 2x4th best results. Emma had WAWC EOS DH 4xT10 as of EOS 2025, but with 1^st and 2^nd in final meet at Kvitfjell.) So, Alice’s season-opener SG triumph was a legitimate surprise. (For both Speed disciplines keep in mind that Brignone’s and Gut-Behrami’s absence eliminates for Super G 2024 and 2025 EOS 1^st (Lara) and 2^{nd (}Fede), and for DH 2024 EOS 2^nd (Lara) and 2025 1^st (Fede). Speed’s podium is more accessible than it has been recently.)

Alice Robinson on her winning run. St. Moritz Super G - 14 December 2025

    Drink up, kid.

Romane Miradoli and Alice Robinson on St. Moritz SG podium.

Sofia and Lindsey, both healthy and super-pumped—and with extreme personal and public expectations—for Olympic medals, must still be favored to take this season’s SG title, but not by much. Alice will annoy them the entire way, because she’s ramping up to be a three-discipline player vying for Overall for the next seven to ten years. More on that below. As for SG, Robinson has little pressure; to use a tennis expression, she can “swing freely.” Giant Slalom is her primary thing, and she’s Big Dog with Julia Scheib howling for the bone, but Alice won’t let it slip from her fangs.

    For me, Romane’s excellent SG start is one of the best things so far. With 178 WAWC starts, primarily Speed with a few seasons of GS included, she’s a ten-season veteran. Finishing 2022 SG with a flourish—6^th, 1^st, 5^th—to take EOS 9^th and complete December 2020 ACL damage recovery, Miradoli did left ACL in March 2023. Total bummer. But she fought back for EOS SG 9^th last season: 5xT10, including a 3d and a 5^th, and a single DNF. 19^th and 21^st instead of two more T10s probably cost her EOS 5^th or so, as she was 43 points behind that rank. Romane skis beautifully—powerful and elegant. I think she’ll EOS SG T5.

   Romane Miradoli - St. Moritz Super G

  No surprise if Elena Curtoni has another EOS SG T5—last four seasons she’s 2^nd, 4^th, 2x5th. She quietly excels as her flamboyant compatriots Fede and Sofia hog the attention.

( ‘ o “ ) Turning 35 in February, I suspect Elena will retire EOS. With 279 WAWC starts, she’s Italy’s second-most experienced Alpine skier currently racing. (Fede has 361! I didn’t realize that until I checked just now. Comparison for what it’s worth: Mikaela has 290; Vonn…413. Difficult to believe. And to think Lindsey missed about two full seasons’ worth to injury. She’d be around 475. Gut-Behrami has 395; also missed over a season’s worth of races. These people are abnormal for the species.)

    Kajsa Lie and Ester Ledecka, both high on my SG list for this season, are tied for 11^th. That should change.

Rivalries make any competition more interesting. An individual sport where the contestants objectively fight the clock rather than each other, ski racing rivalries lack the direct engagement of tennis or boxing. Or of even golf, I’d say, where the players accompanying each other during rounds allow competitive spirit/ambition, admiration, enmity, and such to influence the outcome—often subtly, sometimes blatantly. (The fistfights on greens and fairways during PGA matches is a highly compelling reason to watch golf, I think. I was a serviceable player and appreciate the sport’s precise, exacting demands. Excepting a few characters, however, the players’ bland personalities saps my interest in following the professional tours.) Team sports’ rivalries, which are often incredibly passionate and endure for generations, may be similar in ski racing re national pride, or provincial in various European instances. I imagine as in English or in German football, certain cities/regions may root for their homies. I’m guessing, but perhaps Austrians divide along Styria vs Salzburgerland vs Carinthia?

Anyway, I’m suggesting that in whatever form it develops, WAWC has a “rivalry” taking shape.  

    Alice Robinson and Emma Aicher are two extremely precocious talents. Alice turned 24 three weeks ago; Emma became 22 mid-November. Alice freaked us out a few years ago with several magical Giant Slalom races. A couple middling seasons, and she was back—2024 EOS GS 4^th, and 2^nd last year. She’ll EOS podium GS for the next 6 to 8 years, with five titles, I’d say. Now she’s cranking up Speed. Robinson was EOS SG 17^th the past two seasons, running full schedules with a single 4^th best result. Her summer/fall training worked pretty well. If Alice’s DH develops the way her SG has, she’ll be in Overall contention as well for the next half-dozen years. We’ll see. Best DH finishes are an 11^th and a 14^th, a couple of years ago. No indication Slalom’s in the cards.

Emma Aicher has a 4-discipline hand. Now beginning her third full-schedule campaign, Emma has the potential to dominate Overall points totals for 8 years or so, or at least once Her Highness says farewell. For T5 results, she has DH 2x1st, 2^nd, 5th; SG 1^st and 5^th; SL 2x3d. GS is her weak point: 4xT20 with 12^th best, a couple weeks ago at Mt. Tremblant. So at this point Emma has a leg up on Alice, with three solidly progressing disciplines against two. Robinson, however, consistently racks up GS points; Aicher hasn’t yet shown dominance in any discipline. Emma’s very strong, and so far resilient. She had a pretty sharp fall at the St. Moritz SG, but wasn’t hurt.

    Both of these racers are high-profile this season. Robinson is expected to GS medal at Cortina—in fact, less than silver would be failure, even at 24. That’s how dominate she can be; right now only Julia Scheib is considered her race-to-race GS peer. As for Super G, if she keeps it fast and loose for the next six weeks, Alice will be in fine shape for Olympic podium. No expectations.

    Emma’s Cortina pressure will be almost completely determined by her WAWC record. Even though she’s recognized as a rising star, at 22 she’ll be given plenty of slack, I’d guess. Her coaches will bum out if she doesn’t T6 in at least one race, but coaches always expect Olympic excellence, AFAICT, since such big-race success (and failure) reflects so publicly upon them.

    Except for Shiffrin, and likely Goggia and Vonn, Aicher and Robinson are the clear high-point Overall contenders this season.

 And the way Emma and Alice are progressing, they’ll definitely be two of WAWC’s most prominent racers for at least six years after Shiffrin retires. Macuga and Lie may also make the grade. We’ll see.

    So for now, let’s enjoy a rivalry…how ever it may be.