Goggia stuns with gutsy downhill win
ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — Italian Sofia Goggia gave a thumbs-up with her right hand after dominating the fourth women’s World Cup downhill of the season.
Her left hand she could barely move.
Goggia won the race in impressive style, leading runner-up Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia by 0.43 seconds, a day after breaking two fingers when she hit a gate but still finished second in a downhill on the same Corviglia course.
After Friday’s accident, the two-time Olympic downhill medalist went to Milan to have surgery. The Italian ski team said a metal rod and screws were placed inside her hand to stabilize it and her hand wrapped in a cast.
Still, Goggia returned to the Swiss resort for the second downhill.
With her left hand bandaged and the glove attached to her ski pole with yellow duct tape, Goggia was the ninth starter as she seemed not visibly hampered by the injury.
“When I understood today that I could make it, I
think there was no girl who was (as) happy as I was today at the start gate. It was not guaranteed that I could be at the start today,” said Goggia, adding the Italian team even considered not putting her on the start list for the race.
“I said: ‘Are you crazy? You crazy?’ I don’t give up this way,” Goggia said.
Racing under blue skies and sunshine — in contrast to Friday’s race in snowy and foggy conditions — Goggia charged down the 2.5-kilometer course in her usual gutsy style, not holding back in bumpy turns and jumping higher and further than her rivals.
Goggia finished 0.52 seconds ahead of thenleader Kira Weidle of Germany, and waved and blew kisses to the spectators.
Weidle was later bumped into third by Stuhec, who earned her first podium in nearly four years. The Slovenian won the 2017 world downhill title on this course.
Elena Curtoni, who won Friday’s race, finished 1.16 seconds behind in eighth.
Goggia’s third win of the season and 20th overall was briefly threatened by Mikaela Shiffrin.
Starting 21st, the overall World Cup leader was a few hundredths faster than Goggia in the first two sections, but Shiffrin took fewer risks than the Italian in the remainder of her run and finished in fourth.
“I am really happy with how these last two days have gone with downhill. It was so fun and smooth and flowing,” said Shiffrin, who improved two positions from Friday’s result, when she finished one spot behind teammate Breezy Johnson.
Men’s downhill: Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde returned to the top of a men’s World Cup downhill podium, two days after finishing fifth in a shortened race at the same resort. Kilde dominated the full version of the classic race on the challenging Saslong for his third win from four downhills this season. Kilde’s powerful run saw him beat French veteran Johan Clarey by 0.35 seconds. Mattia Casse came a surprise third, 0.42 behind, in the Italian’s first career podium. Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt missed the podium for the first time in 12 races, as the Swiss allrounder trailed Kilde by 0.92 and shared seventh place with Travis Ganong, the top American finisher. Luge:Germany won three of five World Cup races held Saturday at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics sliding track, while Emily Sweeney and Brittney Arndt won medals for the U.S. Germany got gold in the women’s race, with Dajana Eitberger holding off Sweeney for the victory, as well as in the men’s doubles sprint and the women’s sprint. Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won the men’s doubles sprint, and Julia Taubitz won the women’s sprint. Bobsled: Germany swept a pair of bobsled World Cup races Saturday, with Johannes Lochner driving to a rare win over countryman Francesco Friedrich in twoman and Laura Nolte holding off Kaillie Humphries of the U.S. for a monobob victory.