Stuhec is an intersting charcter, while most racers have a whole staff to tune their skis, and have a fairly large coaching staff, Stuhec has her mom. Her mom is the only woman ski technician on the FIS Alpine World Cup. The ski technician in a downhill event is of the utmost importance, becasue in DH more than anything it is important that the skis be able to glide over the snow. Stuhec’s mother usually works 5-7 hours a day on her daughter’s skis and this weekend, her hardwork has paid off as her daughter won two Downhill races in a row. 
Sometimes all you need is one good result and you get the confidence you need to start getting that same result consistently. Skiing is all about confidence. When you are confident when you’re skiing it feels like you can do whatever you want. When you are not confident, then you are lucky to even make it down the hill.
Stuhec was skiing unbelievably confidently on Saturday. The course was shortened due to weather and even though the course was shorter than it was on Friday, Stuhec had a faster speed. She remained in her tuck longer than anyone else and she really made it look like she belongs on the top step of the podium.
The shortend course, especially since Lake Louise is already an easy course, meant that even one mistake would be costly. Lara Gut and Hungarian Edit Miklos rounded out the podium.
Lara Gut had a better run than she did Friday, however Gut looked very uncontrolled and she took a way too low line for the second day in a row. The line she took forced her to over turn to get back and that slows down speed considerably.
Gut had the lead and was building until that mistake. She ended up being .11 seconds slower than Stuhec.
Mikaela Shiffrin again looked like a natural, in her second ever DH she was the fastest skier (mph) wise in the middle section and she did it in challenging conditions. Shiffrin ended up finishing 13th.
Shiffrin approached speed skiing like she has everything else
in her career, she took it slow and progressed through it and now it is paying off. If Shiffrin can continue to improve in the speed events and still dominate in the technical events, she might just win the overall by a huge amount.
“I don’t know how many more Downhills I’ll do this year, but just doing it at all and feeling that speed is an amazing experience for me,” Shiffrin said after the race. “For sure I’ll be back on the Downhill circut but I have to keep track of my real goals this season.”
One thing is for sure Gut needs to perform in her favorite event, Super G and she needs to continue to get podiums on DH and GS and we just might see a fantastic battle between the two. With the result today Gut moved from 6th to 2nd and is 130 points behind Shiffrin.
On Edge 