The 32-year-old from Bergamo crushed the competition, as she often does, when things get tough. Sofia Goggia offered herself the 26th victory of her career on Saturday, the 19th in downhill and her 4th on the Dolomites track, thanks to a demonstration in the middle of the course, where she took half a second from everyone. On an Olympia delle Tofane track which will never (again) bear its name as well as next year, on the occasion of the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, the success of the Italian is a great message to competition towards 2026.
The podium was completed by the Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (at 0”42) and the Italian Federica Brignone (at 0”55). The feat is significant for the latter, who climbed on the box for the first time after having failed in the top 3 on this track for 14 years! Lindsey Vonn, queen of the place with 12 successes, broke down at the end. The American, who fell in training on Thursday, finished 20th at 1”68.
Not yet completely confident, Corinne Suter (5th) may have reached a milestone this Saturday. Injured twice on this same track, including a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and the meniscus of the left knee a year ago, the Schwyzoise put in a complete performance. Enough to see the future (and the Saalbach Worlds?) coming with new ambitions, for the Olympic downhill champion in 2022 and the world champion in the same discipline in 2021.
-Its leader Lara Gut (4th) had a few scares, especially due to her speed in the sequences and jumps of the course. The Ticino woman still knew how to let her skis slip away as she knows how to do so well and that allowed her to do well, three hundredths ahead of Corinne Suter and in the middle of an ultra-tight race, with 17 competitors who held each other in line. a second, far behind Goggia.
Prodigy Malorie Blanc continued to cut her teeth at world level and came back to earth a little, after her recent exploits. On a track that requires experience – the youngest in the top 5 of the day is 27 years old – the 21-year-old from Valais regularly lost time, to rank 24th, just under two seconds behind the winner, after the passage of 35 competitors. The other Swiss women also had a complicated descent, with Delia Durrer (19th), Priska Ming-Nufer (28th) and Michelle Gisin out of the points. Joana Hählen was eliminated.
