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Brignone and Huetter share Super-G honours in Olympic boost
Federica Brignone said Sunday's joint-first with Cornelia Huetter in the final World Cup Super-G race before the Winter Olympics will give her a lot of confidence going to Beijing.
Italy's Brignone and Huetter timed 1 minute 18.19 seconds each for a rare share of the honours with another Austrian Tamara Tippler taking third spot.
"Being here, having the pressure of the World Cup, trying to do my best with this pressure was the best preparation I could do for the Olympics (they get underway on February 4 and run till Feb 20)," said Brignone.
"This win today will be a big push and will give me a lot of confidence, because in Beijing there will be so much pressure, much more pressure than here."
Brignone, the first Italian female skier to win the overall World Cup title when she triumphed in 2020, said she prayed she would bow out of what is her fourth and probably final Olympics with a bang.
The women's Olympic Super-G race is on February 11 and the downhill four days later.
"I would like to take this confidence with me, I hope to find the same feeling with the skis and try and enjoy the moment," said Brignone, who has just the one Olympic medal, bronze in the 2018 giant slalom.
"I think this will be my last Olympic Games and would like to give my everything to my nation and for myself and for everybody that works with me."
Huetter said it had all been rather surreal crossing the line to see they were level pegging.
"It's very nice, it was a little bit weird to cross the finish line I saw the green light and I saw 0.00," she said.
"Then I was really happy to share with Federica.
"The Olympics will be a spectacle, there is only one race every four years and you have to be on point for this race or two races."
Brignone's share of the spoils -- in a race that saw many big names skip so as to have a free run to the Games -- also saw her extend her lead in the World Cup Super-G standings.
She has 477 points, well clear of her compatriots Elena Curtoni (3764) -- who was only 10th on Sunday -- and defending Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia (332).
Goggia missed the weekend as she is in a race against time to be fit for the Games.
She sprained her knee, tore a ligament and suffered a small fracture to her fibula in a crash in a World Cup super-G in Cortina d'Ampezzo earlier this month.
A. Bogdanow--BTZ
