The first race day of the 2026 Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals Alpine was fully dominated by the Italian team which won both downhill races with Laura Pirovano on the women’s side and her colleague Dominik Paris on the men's tour.
Pirovano secures downhill globe
With her third consecutive victories in two weeks, Pirovano accomplished the impressive feat of clinching the downhill World Cup globe ahead of Germany's Emma Aicher and USA's Olympic Champion Breezy Johnson who came in 2nd today. It's quite an extraordinary performance for the 28-year-old athlete born in Milano who did not reach a FIS World Cup podium before her double wins a Val di Fassa after the Olympics.
"I have a hard time believing what's going on these days, I was so nervous today that I needed to fight hard remaining focused and ready for the challenging run," she explained afterwards. "
"I guess I'll need a long time to fully understand and realize what has happened to me in the past few weeks," Laura added. "I really liked to be in Kvitfjell and raced again here, I had my first Europa Cup victory here in past years," she also said.
Laura Pirovano is the third Italian speed specialist to clinch the downhill globe after Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone.
Paris wins again on the Olympiabakken
It was also a very exciting day for Paris who enjoyed his first season victory today - and his seventh on the beautiful "Olimpiabakke course" that has regularly hosted FIS World Cup competitions since 1993! Only Norwegian 2019 FIS World Champion Kjetil Jansrud did as well here in his heydays.
Swiss triple Olympic Champion Franjo von Allmen came in 2nd with a delay of 19/100 of a second while Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr multiple winner here was 3rd at 60/100.
With his 20th downhill triumph, Paris became the second best specialist in the discipline behind Austria Skiing Legend Franz Klammer.
A year ago, Dominik already prevailed in a downhill and a Super-G in Kvitfjell where he feels extremely comfortable. "I just like it being here, it's a nice slope and we stay in a quiet hôtel near the start of the run,it's a great place to end the season," the year-old Italian veteran told the press after the race.
"The conditions were pretty good for me today as the snow was harder thanks to the colder temperatures last night," Paris also said. "I greatly enjoyed again cruising down this hill at high speed, sometimes I had the feeling to be flying. It means a lot to end the season with that victory and being 3rd in the downhill standings. It proves that I had another strong season."
More to come on Sunday
Laura Pirovano and Dominik Paris will also be fighting for victories in Sunday's Super-G which could be a turning point for the women's overall World Cup standings.. Germany's Emma Aicher, 5th today only 12/100 behind the podium, failed to score the expected "big points" and still has an important gap of 95 points on USA's Mikaela Shiffrin who plans to also race on Sunday.
Sofia Goggia is aming for a strong result to successfully defend her lead in the Super-G standings
