Tessa Worley FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
The American set the fastest time in the first round by just a tenth ahead of the Frenchwoman, more than ever in the race for a third world crown.
Our special correspondent in Méribel
Tessa Worley gave herself the right to dream. By signing an excellent 1’02”66, the Frenchwoman finished the first round of the giant of the Worlds in a magnificent 2nd place which leaves intact her chances of winning a third title in the discipline after those obtained in 2013 and 2017. a Roc de Fer track that she likes, with a number 1 bib that could only invite her to “play without asking questions or thinking too much“, as she had confided the day before, the skier from Annemasse achieved a particularly effective top of the route, before weakening slightly at the bottom.
But overall, she did not hide her satisfaction when commenting on her first run: “I feel good. Since this morning, everything has happened very quickly. I felt the pressure, but I’m happy to have been able to do my skiing anyway. I’m in contact with Mikaela, in the right car for the podium, but that’s only a small part of the job. 60% of the work remains. But in front of such an audience, with such support, I really want to give the best.»
Only one skier finally succeeded in dislodging Tessa Worley from the top of the time sheet before the second run. And unsurprisingly, this one is called Mikaela Shiffrin. Despite the little psychodrama of the day before and the surprising announcement of her separation from her trainer Mike Day, the American was obviously not disturbed by this blow from Trafalgar. Solid on the upper part, Shiffrin shifted up a gear on the bottom of the track to erase her delay of three tenths at the last intermediate on the Frenchwoman and get ahead of her by a small tenth (1’02”54). Winner of five of the eight giants disputed this season in the World Cup, the American will be difficult to pick up, but Worley will be in the best position to do so from 1:30 p.m.
Indeed, behind the Franco-American duo, only the Italian Federica Brignone managed to get involved in the fight. Combined world champion at the opening of these Worlds in the Tarentaise, the Transalpine played in front almost all along before cracking on the last doors to fall to 3rd place, 0”31 from Shiffrin and 0”19 from Worley . Fourth, the world title holder in giant, Lara Gut-Behrami, is more than half a second behind the American (0”64), a gap which is not prohibitive but which will hardly allow fault in the second act. Candidates for gold before the start, the Beijing Olympic champion Sara Hector (5th) or the Slovak Petra Vhlova (7th) both suffered to finish at almost a second. In the French clan, note the interesting performance of Coralie Frasse-Sombert, who was not unworthy with her 10th time, while Clara Direz is relegated beyond 20th place.