Goggia Dominant At Lake Louise, Kilde Wins Second Birds Of Prey SG

Olympic champion Sofia Goggia (ITA) was perfect in her first downhill race of the season. After missing almost half of last season and especially the most important event of the World Cup at home, she returns to the races stronger than ever with one of the larger margins of the last 50 years.

With only one training run, Sofia managed to interpret the course better than the others on a sun-kissed day that shows Lake Louise at its best.

Breezy Johnson (USA), in second place, starts the season right at the top of the standings re-establishing himself as the leader of the American team. A clean and error-free run that certainly shows an improvement in her technique.

"You know I hope she's not unbeatable, but I'll have to analyze it a little bit because it was an incredible run honestly," Johnson chuckled in response to questions about Goggia's inimitable run. "She's showing what women's ski racing can be, and you know I think the men should maybe start watching her a little bit too."

Despite missing two days of training in Lake Louise due to weather, the women were able to get their first speed race of the season off under bluebird skies in Lake Louise thanks to the hard work of the course crew. Lack of training on the track did not deter Johnson's confidence. She still chose to run early and attack the first women's downhill of the season with the same tenacity and aggression as she has in the past.

"It's been a process, getting better and better, so I feel really good. I felt like today was a really solid run," expanded Johnson. "You can only ski one hundred percent, so I'm going to try and ski one hundred percent of my best and not worry so much about Sofia and going beyond my limits because that's when I make mistakes."

Friday also saw a handful of top 30 results from the American women. Jackie Wiles finished 23rd, Mikaela Shiffrin finished 26th, and Isabella Wright finished 27th overall.

Shiffrin, who won the downhill in Lake Louise in 2017, has come into the 2021/22 season with a focus on the overall title but hasn't had much opportunity to work speed training into her pre-season schedule. Nonetheless, she made the commute to Lake Louise with realistic expectations, knowing that there is no better training than feeling the very real pressures of race day, no matter where she lands in the ranks.

"Right now, I have a pretty lofty goal of shooting to race in every event at the Olympics, but I can't just go into it and do it," said Shiffrin. "I'm trying to take these races as not only practice but training. The last run of downhill I had was in September and before that it was in May, so it's trying to get as much as I can, as quickly as I can, and racing is really the perfect situation to practice finding your balance mentally and physically, and the right intensity for race mode."

Up-and-comer Alix Wilkinson finished just outside the top 30 in 33rd, Keely Cashman finished 46th, and Lauren Macuga skied into the finish with a smile and waved to the crowd, having finished her first-ever World Cup downhill in 48th.

In third place was Mirjam Puchner (AUT), who had been missing the downhill podium since Soldeu 2019.

In Beaver Creek, in only his third race back from injury, Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, won the second Super G. In the first SG, Kilde did not manage to finish his race as he missed a gate, however today, he was back in full force. Starting with bib 6, he pushed his way to claim first place, however, with Odermatt (SUI) wearing bib 7, he wasn’t sure how long he’d be in the hot seat for.

After winning yesterday’s Super G, Marco Odermatt definitely had confidence on his side when standing up at the start gate. The Swiss skier has two previous wins to his name in Beaver Creek and was looking to make it three. In a very tight race, Odermatt finished 0.03 seconds behind Kilde to claim second place.

Wearing bib 2, Travis Ganong (USA) was the first skier of the day to complete the course, after Romed Baumann (GER) didn’t finish his race. Ganong set a time of 1:10.63, 0.37 seconds behind Kilde, but it was enough to secure him third place and his very first Super G World Cup podium. Ganong stated, “it feels really good to have a podium (in Super G) and especially here at home in the US. There couldn’t be a better place to do it or a better day to do it.” The last time an American was on the podium in the US was in 2015 where Ted Ligety and Andrew Weibrecht placed 2nd and 3rd in the Super G in Beaver Creek.

Ganong, who ran second, came out strong right out of the gate, but his time was eventually surpassed by Marco Odermatt.

After a difficult day of racing for most of the men's field on Thursday, Ganong finished 22nd overall. A decent result in his eyes, but not what he wanted. In his race recap, he said the only thing he could do was come back tomorrow and do better. And thankfully, he did just that.

"I felt pretty great out of the gate today, skied tactically on the top, and really felt my flow right away," commented Ganong. "Yesterday I also skied well, but messed up the tactical section and today I nailed it. So today I'm stoked to be up there with the top guys."

Ganong has often found himself just outside of podium position, so to finally grab a top spot on home snow, in front of 15+ members of his family, is a great way to start the season. Friday's finish is his first podium since his victory in Garmisch, Germany's gnarly downhill in 2017.

"People love ski racing in the U.S., and skiing in general in the U.S. is such a popular activity, all these people are so passionate, so it's awesome to showcase our sport back here at home," said Ganong. "It's almost like a little family reunion."

Both Ryan Cochran-Siegle and River Radamus were on track to post strong times throughout their runs but skied out of the course and DNFed. Fellow Americans Erik Arvidsson, Steven Nyman, Bryce Bennett, finished just outside of the points in 35th, 36th, and 39th respectively.

Amongst the joy and cheers, there were nonetheless some disappointments. Austrian skiers, Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kriechmayer, finished off the podium in 4th and 5th place, respectively. Mayer came second in yesterday's Super G, whereas Kriechmayer finished 5th. Alexis Pinturault (FRA) who looked to be contending for a podium position ended up finishing 6th after losing time in the third interval of the course.