Goggia Wins Saturday Downhill To Equal Italian Record
From last to first in 24 hours, it's just another weekend in the rollercoaster career of Sofia Goggia (ITA).
A day after a wild run ended in a fall and the 55th and final place in Friday's super-G, Goggia found the right aggression-control balance to win Saturday's downhill in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee and continue her assault on the record books. Goggia came out on top, winning her first downhill of the season. Austria's Stephanie Venier finished one-tenth off Goggia's winning time in second, followed by her teammate Mirjam Puchner, who tied with Italy's Nicol Delago in third.
In finally making her peace with the Austrian course, Goggia triumphed ahead of Stephanie Venier (AUT, +0.10s), with Mirjam Puchner (AUT) and Nicol Delago (ITA) in equal third, 0.34 seconds behind Goggia.
"I think I had a solid race, clean skiing mostly coming down the course," Goggia said. "I knew I could make a difference in the last part."
In stark contrast to Friday's error-filled performance, Goggia's run on Saturday contained only one small line error and she did not have to ski the high-risk, high-reward style that has often typified her career.
"It was really emotional to me after yesterday, not just because it was a bad race but for many reasons," Goggia explained.
"And I just wanted to do a nice downhill and I didn't need to push 100 per cent, but I just wanted to be solid and do my things."
Altenmarkt-Zauchensee had been a graveyard for Goggia in the past, with four DNFs and only one finish higher than 18th place in eight races on the hill prior to Saturday.
"In Altenmarkt I never got any podium," she said. "First podium, first victory — I'll take it."
In winning her 24th World Cup race, the 31-year-old from Bergamo equalled teammate Federica Brignone (ITA) for the most among Italian women, a record they have been trading back and forth over the last two seasons.
And as the best downhill racer of her generation, Goggia's 18th World Cup downhill win also moved her past Michela Figini (SUI) into outright fourth place on the all-time women's list, with Renate Goetschl (AUT, 24) her next target in third.
Behind Goggia, podium positions were up for grabs on Saturday with Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) absent while recovering from illness and some other pre-race favourites faltering on the long downhill course.
Among them, Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) was in touch for most of the race but fell out of contention on the lower section and finished sixth, while Brignone had an uncharacteristically wild run to end up equal 14th and Cornelia Huetter (AUT) couldn't reproduce her form from Friday's super-G win and finished 16th.
Those performances allowed Venier, Puchner and Delago to record their first podium results of the season, and the first since 2021 and 2020 for Puchner and Delago, respectively.
Venier, skiing with bib No.17 after the top seeds were already at the bottom of the mountain, led Goggia's time at the third intermediate split and just missed out on what would have been one of the upsets of the season.
"Today was so much fun and everything was so smooth," she said. "I had a good feeling but I was a little bit surprised that it was only 10 hundredths behind Sofia."
With Huetter's victory on Friday giving Austria their first win of the season on the women's tour, Saturday's double podium provided another boost as the powerhouse team look to kickstart their season.
"It's something special to share this with my teammate Mirjam and with yesterday's win of Conny, home races are real fun and I love it," Venier said.
It was the first World Cup podium at home for both Austrians and it was especially meaningful for Puchner, who had never been higher than seventh in her backyard at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee.
"I grew up about 30 minutes from here so it's very special first of all to have a race here and a podium is very cool," Puchner said.
Puchner's impressive run saw her lead Goggia at the first split and eventually join Delago in second, before both were pushed down to third by Venier.
Delago, who was first down the mountain with bib No.1, held the lead until Goggia surpassed her seven racers later, but the 28-year-old held on for her fourth career World Cup podium and second in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee.
"I really like the slope and this place and I'm super happy," Delago said.
As for her teammate Goggia, what emotions are left for her to experience this weekend in Sunday's second, longer super-G?
"I think that the super-G that will be starting from Hot Air is going to be different from the one we did yesterday," she said.
Jacqueline Wiles posted another strong result in Zauchensee on Saturday, Jan. 13, finishing 14th overall in the downhill, her best result in the discipline since Cortina in 2022. Wiles' push into the top 15 from bib 39 also earned her her second Stifel Bibbo Award of the weekend, an honor that goes to the racer who advances through the ranks the most from their bib number.
"I've had some great memories on this track, so I'm more confident with where I'm going, and I have my line dialed," said Wiles. "I just needed to nail a few key turns and let the skis run. I got late at times, but I kept it going, and I think that's why I was able to have a fast run."
Wright, who pushed out of the start in bib 2, also ended the day with a solid result, finishing 17th overall. After Friday's super-G, Wright changed her plan and chose to ski with more enthusiasm and less reserve than the previous day.
"I will always feel better with a result where I know I pushed my skiing to the limit rather than trying to ski the whole course perfectly," said Wright. "A small mistake ended up costing me a lot of time today, and when you start that early on great snow, you end up on the right or the wrong side of the times. I fell back a bit today, but I still feel good about my skiing."
U.S. Ski Team athlete Tricia Mangan did not finish but escaped a crash and is okay. Lauren Macuga finished 36th, and Keely Cashman finished 38th.
