Suter wins last downhill before Olympics

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — In the absence of Sofia Goggia, world champion Corinne Suter won the last downhill before the Beijing Olympics.

Suter had a dominate performance Saturday to finish 0.51 seconds faster than Swiss teammate Jasmine Flury for her first World Cup victory since Dec. 18, 2020. Cornelia Huetter of Austria was third, 0.78 behind.

Goggia would have been the overwhelming favorite to defend her Olympic downhill title but she was injured during a World Cup super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo last week. The 29-year-old Italian sprained her left knee, partially tore a cruciate ligament and has a “minor fracture” of the fibula, along with some tendon damage.

Goggia has started physical rehab with the aim of returning in time for the Olympic downhill at the Beijing Games on Feb. 15. She will likely miss the giant slalom on Feb. 7 and the super-G on Feb. 11.

With the Winter Olympics around the corner, several top contenders skipped the races in Garmisch, including overall rivals Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova, and Lara Gut-Behrami — who had won the downhill in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee. Goggia won the other four downhills this season.

Out of the top 10 skiers in the overall standings, only Federica Brignone and Elena Curtoni raced. They finished 18th and 16th, respectively.

Suter moved into second spot in the downhill standings although she is still 69 points behind Goggia.

Jacqueline Wiles was the first American in 21st place. Her teammate, Alix Wilkinson also finished in the points in 24th.

Canada’s Marie-Michèle Gagnon finished 9th. Kicking out of the start hut wearing bib 1, Gagnon took advantage of a clean track to ski a smooth and solid run from top to bottom. Maintaining her speed throughout the course, she achieved her best split at the second to last interval with the 6th fastest time of the day, good for 9th place overall and best North American result.  
 
“I used to get stressed about having bib number one, especially in Super G, but now I’m more comfortable with these kinds of these kinds of situations in downhill where we have a few training runs,” tells Mitch. 

There is a super-G scheduled for Sunday before a pause for the Olympics.

RESULTS

This is a developing story, stay tuned for more.

The Associated Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report.