SOLDEU, Andorra — For Lara Gut-Behrami, ski racing isn't all about winning races any more. It's just as much about avoiding injuries, too.
The Swiss star overtook the absent Mikaela Shiffrin on top of the women's World Cup overall standings with a giant slalom victory on Saturday.
Enjoying a three-race winning streak, Gut-Behrami raised her season's tally to 1,214 points, five more than Shiffrin, who sits out this weekend's races to nurse a left knee injury.
"I learned a lot from my injuries," Gut-Behrami said. "My first priority is to come to the end of the season. Sometimes we forget that and we only talk about points or wins, but somehow it's more about skiing great and staying safe."
Gut-Behrami learned that lesson seven years ago. She was the defending champion when she tore the ACL in her left knee near the end of the season and dropped out of a duel with Shiffrin for the 2016-17 overall title.
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This time, it's the American who is out injured.
Shiffrin hurt her knee, but avoided damage to the ligaments, while landing from a jump and crashed into the safety netting at a downhill in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, 15 days ago.
Gut-Behrami finished second in that race and has racked up 345 points in the four events that Shiffrin has missed since.
"Yes, but this is probably one month too early," Gut-Behrami said with a smile on regaining the lead in the overall standings with 14 races left until the season ends on March 23.
Shiffrin will also skip Sunday's slalom in Andorra as her return to racing is yet unclear. Gut-Behrami does not compete in that discipline.
Gut-Behrami is after her second overall title, Shiffrin can win her sixth.
"For the overall World Cup, this season has shown us that you have to be fast and you have to be healthy. That will always be my top priority," said Gut-Behrami, who also led the standings after winning the season-opening race in Austria in October.
Many top skiers have been involved in serious crashes lately and suffered season-ending injuries, including Petra Vlhova, Valerie Grenier and Corinne Suter, and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Alexis Pinturault and Marco Schwarz on the men's circuit.
Odermatt keeps rolling
BANSKO, Bulgaria — Swiss star Marco Odermatt dominated a men’s World Cup giant slalom to claim his ninth straight win in the discipline.
Odermatt wasn’t clean on the icy steep middle part of the Banderitza course in either run. But he gained time on his competitors in all other sections as he extended his lead from the first leg to finish 0.91 seconds ahead of runner-up Alexander Steen Olsen of Norway.
Austrian skier Manuel Feller was 1.08 behind in third as the top three kept their positions from the first run.
“For sure, the confidence is on the highest level and everything is working well. The skiing is perfect and I just have fun skiing,” said Odermatt, who has 20 wins from 60 career starts in the discipline.
Odermatt, who is the Olympic and world GS champion, has won 10 World Cup races in total this season, including all six giant slaloms.
The two-time overall champion becomes the first male skier since Hermann Maier more than two decades ago to win 10 World Cup races in consecutive seasons.
Odermatt is rapidly closing in on his third big crystal globe, after raising his season's total to 1,506 points and extending his lead in the overall standings to 822 points over second-placed Cyprien Sarrazin. The French skier does not compete in the technical events.
Saturday's victory left Odermatt five wins short of the record for the most GS wins in a row, set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 14 straight in the late 1970s.
Odermatt had not triumphed in Bansko before. In 2021, the last time the men’s World Cup visited Bulgaria, he finished fifth and second, respectively, in two giant slaloms.