Goggia Leads Italian Podium Sweep In Bad Kleinkirchheim DH, Brignone Wins Super

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.

Federica Brignone of Italy was the surprise winner of the super-G in Bad Kleinkirchheim on Saturday. After the ladies were prevented from skiing the bottom portion of the race slope during the week, the hill set up overnight and was in race-worthy condition for Saturday morning. 

Lara Gut of Switzerland skied with precision from bib 7 to take the early lead despite catching her arm on the fourth to final gate and finishing her run with only a single pole. Brignone followed one skier later with a hard-charging run to take a 0.18-second lead over Gut. Austrian Conny Huetter, with bib 13, squeezed out her first super-G podium finish of the season at the resort that's only 20 minutes from her boyfriend's home. 

Tiffany Gauthier of France had a career-best finish in fourth, followed by Nadia Fanchini in fifth. Fanchini's sister, Elena, was recently diagnosed with a tumor that she is being treated for which will prevent her from starting any more races this season. For Nadia Fanchini, it was the best result of her season so far.

Edit Miklos of Hungary appeared to injure her knee during her run and crashed hard in the finish area. She was transported by helicopter to the hospital for evaluation of potential injuries. On Jan. 15, 2017, she suffered a season-ending injury to both of her knees during downhill training in Zauchensee, Austria. 

The ladies were originally scheduled to complete a downhill training run following the super-G race, but the jury decided to limit the competitors to an inspection due to limited time and course conditions.