In this YouTube commentary, Tom Gellie breaks down the 2021 women's giant slalom race in Sölden, where Mikaela Shiffrin edged out Lara Gut‑Behrami by 0.14 seconds. He walks through both athletes' second runs frame‑by‑frame, highlighting where each skier gained or lost time. Gellie notes that while Gut was faster on the steep, more direct sections, Shiffrin’s lower body position and a pump‑track‑like technique on two flat dip sections allowed her to generate extra speed and recover the deficit. He also mentions ancillary factors such as ski wax and equipment preparation, but stresses that the decisive moments were tactical—particularly the handling of the flat sections—rather than pure style. The analysis concludes that the race was decided by subtle differences in body positioning, line choice, and timing, illustrating how two world‑class skiers can be separated by fractions of a second.
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The women's GS race at Sölden on the weekend was such a close battle. Mikaela Shiffrin just pips Lara Gutt for first place. Now I thought it would be really interesting to look at the two skiers on their second run and see like where, where was this race won, because actually in different places each skier was ahead. So, I thought rather than like the last video where there was style, I had a bit of a stylistic sort of viewpoint on things, which I'm defending myself saying that's just because I like style and I think, you know, everyone does. Why would you put a piece of art on the wall? Because you like the style, you'd choose it over something else. So, even though ski races, it's all about who's the fastest down, not what you look like, I think everyone understands and knows that. But then commenting on other aspects like, well, with people with quite different styles, like, can they compete still closely? Like, that was why I made the last one with River versus the winner Marco Odomat. But this one, if I looked at the two skiers, I wouldn't say I preferred one style over the other. They're both incredibly, you know, beautiful, accurate, skilled, And so, really it comes down to, yeah, a few more tactical things than technical things, you could say. Now, I'm going to point out what I see is the, like, what made Michaela Shiffrin win, because she was actually behind, like, by a decent amount coming off the steep, and the steep is possibly the hardest part to get right, and Lara Gute is quite a decent way ahead of her on the steep, yet Mikaela Shiffrin on the flats is— that's where she pulls through and takes her by 0.14 of a second. Let me take you through what I see, and again, it's just my perspective, everyone can have their own, and that's fine. That's what's good about the world, we're allowed to do that. Let's have a look at what I see. Mikaela has like a slight advantage, which is so interesting, in the start here. Let me run it. Full pace. So if we look around the corner, the first difference between the two skiers at this moment here has got to do with how they deal with this slight dip in the terrain. I'm just going to draw it in so it's really obvious. It's this little dip here, this little dip here. Now Mikaela on the left here, notice she just sort of stays low, and look where she chooses to extend. So at this point, Lara Gute has already stood up, Mikaela has stayed low, and she actually extends more later. So she is like— I want to relate this to, I guess, a pump track, because this is exactly the same thing that Mikaela does at the bottom that puts her back in front and makes her win. So you think about like a pump track, which is a a track that has no— usually it's set on complete flat and it's got rolls in it and you have to use your body to sort of unweight and weight, say, a bike or a skateboard or something to go faster around it. So it's the timing of when you allow gravity to push you down the hill and sort of move up to unweight yourself that really matters. So Mikaela Shiffrin, through this section, like, uses this flatter bit more like a pump track, and you can even see as she comes around here, she looks like she comes out with more speed. And then already by this point you can see it's pretty much well synced up. She's just gone a little ahead. Okay, so on the flats, Michaela Shiffrin sort of pipping her and having a little bit more speed in this top section. Now through here they're almost identical, right, as we come back through. I'll just bring up— see this point, you can see that the, the clock We'll show, there it is, Lara Gutt's advantage of, you know, 0.02 of a second ahead goes down, she's already now slower than Mikaela, whereas Mikaela actually gains time in the top section. We come into the steep, and again both skiers like so close in terms of their technique and line chosen. I think Lara is just a little riskier and takes it a little more direct down the course, and particularly when we get to— see, look, like so similar, the two skiers. There goes the red panel from Lara Gute, and you can see as Lara hits it, I'll go back, as Lara, like, she takes the panel out, whereas Mikaela like is just clipping it. So tighter line by Lara, the riskier, more direct line, which is obviously faster, she's taking. And again, she starts to be in front. So at this point, Lara's ahead. So she's just clipped the gate. Now Mikaela hits it. So Lara Gutt's living dangerously, but it's paying off. We come down this section and Again, Lara, more direct, pins it. You can see at this point, more straight at the gate, and this is where she's off. Can you see at this point she's already starting to be well ahead of Michaela? See, past the red gate, now past the red gate. So you'd say coming on off the steep onto the flats, Lara Gute has a definite advantage. Look at this, past the red gate, Michaela Schiffen is really like a decent bit behind. So she's just got to keep it together through the flats until here. So here's where there's a difference again. Have a look, there's a slight dip, a slight dip on the flat. Now how these skiers choose to like approach this is very different. So look, Lara stands up taller, and then as the terrain drops away, she's almost unweighted here, so she's in the air. Look at the difference between her and Mikaela. Mikaela is sort of pulling her feet up, trying to not be pushed up at all by the bump, and watch her push down and extend down like a pump track, pushing off of it to stay on the snow to speed up. And check this out, look, Lara hits the gate, Mikaela Shiffrin Still back here, Lara's already hit it, so she's got the advantage. You'd think Lara's definitely got this in the bag, but that move Mikaela makes here, plus, you know, there's other things I've got no idea about, like the choice of wax, uh, the preparation of the ski. You'd think two of the, you know, best ski racers in the world would be pretty similar there, but that can always be a factor. But I think it's interesting to note the tactic, like they're almost identical You know, through all these other sections except for where there's this pump track type section, the terrain kind of rolls and they both do something very different. Come down, now have a look at this. Already, so Lara clips the blue gate, now Micaela has caught up, look, she's just a second behind. Lara hits the red gate, Micaela hits the red gate. So Lara's still ahead. Michaela is just catching up, but that little extra speed she's got— look at this, now they literally hit the gate at the same time. In fact, Michaela is just a little bit in front. The race is on. We come to the finish line, and look at that, Michaela just over by point— that's what 0.14 of a second looks like to take the win. Over Lara Gute. What an incredible race, amazing to watch, and I think just fascinating to look at what separates these two people. Like, it's not that Lara Gute can't make the same move that Mikaela made on that little pump track section, she absolutely could, and there'd be times when she does, but for whatever reason in that moment, and you know, I'm probably the least qualified person to really say this, you know, as I don't do a lot of ski racing, but I think it's fascinating to look at, you know, at this moment, and if you could rewind back and say, hey, when you come to that, what if Lara sort of pumped that section, didn't stand up, you know, perhaps had a little more wind resistance here? Look, see, hitting the body, so that's going to play, play a role. Uh, Michaela Shiffrin is lower, plus she actually like extends down here and is keeping contact so gravity can keep pushing her down the hill, whereas Lara Gut becomes a little bit up unweighted and happens to, yeah, like slow her down. Because look at that difference. Lara Gut, well ahead, well ahead by quite a few frames of the video camera, and then she manages to pull ahead just by 0.14 seconds. Hope you guys enjoyed that video, and again, I tried to keep style out of it. That aside, both amazing skiers, it was really down to the flats, like Lara Gut better and faster when it came to the steeper section, but then these two little sections at the top and at the bottom here where there was a dip, how they managed it was what I believe sort of was the factor that made one win over the other. Thanks for tuning in, And if I, you know, have time, I'll make some more of these analyses just based on what I'm seeing there. Thanks very much.
