Sofia Goggia returned to her winning ways before hitting PyeongChang with a downhill victory at Bad Kleinkichheim on Sunday.
Skiing down a shortened course using the super-G start due to fog on the upper mountain, Goggia was characteristically aggressive and risky, and the style paid of massively.
She bested her teammates Federica Brignone (whose previous best downhill result was 12th place) by 1.10 seconds and Nadia Fanchini (who suffered a season-ending injury almost exactly one year earlier) by 1.45 seconds, but the Italian trio still swept the podium.
An early morning training run from the reserve start challenged the world’s best in tricky conditions with fog and light snow. Officials decided to lower the race to the super-G start as fog blanketed the top of the mountain through the 11:15 start time. It was a short course, but one that still required a high technical level and precise tactics.
Beyond the podium, Tiffany Gauthier of France matched her previous day’s career-best finish with a fourth place result from bib 36. Marta Bassino of Italy nearly joined her teammates on the podium with blazing early splits and ultimately finished a downhill career-best 10th from bib 45.
The Audi FIS Ski World Cup ladies’ tour moves on to Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, for two downhills and a super-G race starting on Friday.
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