Ski: cup without finals, all canceled in Cortina

Alpine skiing world cup finals are not like Inter-Juve, which can be played behind closed doors. And so - driven by the relative governments who look at the coronavirus and the Italian situation with evident concern - the national ski federations of the most important countries said that they do not want to send their athletes to Italy and Cortina, even if the races would have taken place without public and with a number of precautions. The result is the cancellation of the Finals, a test also in view of the 2011 Cortina World Cup, which will have significant political and economic impacts. But also on a sporting level, the cancellation of the four races in Cortina will have a heavy significance, especially for Italy and for Federica Brignone, who may be the first Italian to doubt the world cup, given that she will freeze the general classification and thus assign the cup after what will become the last three races, in Aare, Sweden, from 12 to 14 March. It is a parallel slalom, a giant and a special one.
Brignone comes to the appointment with 153 points ahead of the US champion Mikaela Shiffrin who, owner of the last three cups, has announced the return to competitions precisely for the Aare races after the sudden death of her father on 3 February. Brignone then has 189 points ahead of Slovak Petra Vlohva. Well: if Federica leaves Aare anyway with some advantage over the other two, she will be the first Italian in history to win the prestigious trophy.
The other two will have - canceled Cortina - four races less to try to go up the slope. For Brignone, the company is therefore far from impossible, even if we consider that both Shiffrin and Vlhova are excellent slalomists and gigantists. But Brignone is not far behind, so much so that in giant with 407 points against 333 of Vlhova the blue is also in the running for this cup after having already won the combined one.
In the blue it will be enough to compete according to its normal standards, especially in giant (100 points at the first, 80 at the second, 60 at the third and down with 1 point at the thirtieth) keeping a beat in the other two races. And the cup is his.
The situation on the men's circuit is more complicated. Tomorrow and Sunday there are the two fast races of Kvitfjell. In Norway, with descent and super-G. Then, in the following weekend, there will be the giant slalom of Kranjska Gora, Slovenia to ask for the season. Well at the top of the ranking is the French Alexis Pinturault with 1,148 points followed by the Norwegian Aleksander Kilde with 1,112. The Norwegian is primarily a sprinter and the French slalomist: it will be a probable head-to-head until the last race.