"Almost gave up"

Brignone takes a swipe at Mikaela Shiffrin

There's a furore surrounding Italian ski star Federica Brignone: in an interview, the all-rounder couldn't resist taking a swipe at Mikaela Shiffrin, accusing the US American of not having fought hard enough to win the overall World Cup this year.

Lara Gut-Behrami would have "probably won either way" last season, said Brignone in an interview with the newspaper "Repubblica". But "at the moment when Shiffrin should have competed, she didn't", the Italian alluded to the speed races in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee (two super-Gs, one downhill) at the beginning of January. The US ski queen had voluntarily skipped them because she didn't feel one hundred percent fit.

At the end of January, Shiffrin crashed heavily in the downhill in Cortina and only celebrated her comeback in Aare at the beginning of March. During her absence, Gut-Behrami, who was over 400 points behind before Shiffrin's forced break, overtook her and was crowned overall World Cup winner ahead of Brignone. In the end, Shiffrin was around 300 points behind the Swiss racer.

"Almost gave up"
According to Brignone, the US American couldn't afford to miss races voluntarily this winter. "In my opinion, she almost gave up so that she wouldn't have to fight Lara," the Italian continued to tease in the interview.