Curtoni Takes Cortina Super-G, Feuz Wins Kitz' DH
Hometown hero Elena Curtoni of Italy took her second career win with Tamara Tippler of Austria in second and Michelle Gisin of Switzerland third. World Cup super-G standing leader Federica Brignone of Italy was fourth. Saturday’s downhill winner and speed sensation Sofia Goggia crashed hard on the course and did not finish. She skied to the finish and is being evaluated.
Curtoni beat Tamara Tippler (AUT), who started just before her (bib number 3 compared to the Italian's 5) by only nine hundredths on the fast and equally technical course designed by Franz Gamper, Ester Ledecka's coach. In third place was Michelle Gisin (SUI), 24 hundredths behind Curtoni and just 8 in front of Federica Brignone (ITA).
The Italian woman are on fire heading into the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, having won the last three straight races on the World Cup circuit—Brignone won the super-G in Zauchensee, Austria, followed by Goggia and Curtoni’s back-to-back wins in Cortina.
Mikaela Shiffrin led the U.S. Alpine Ski Team in super-G at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, finishing 16th, Sunday. Keely Cashman also scored points, skiing into 28th place.
Both Shiffrin and Cashman skied well in the fast super-G but felt like they have more in the tank. “I skied a little bit passive, not super aggressive,” said Cashman. “I’m not that happy with it, but that’s ski racing.”
Though it wasn’t the result she wanted, the Olympic excitement is starting to set in for first-time Olympian Cashman, who overcame an injury over the last year to return to the World Cup stage during an Olympic year and make the team. “Obviously this is something I’ve been working toward my entire life,” she said. “It feels really good to be here and to make my first Olympic team and I’m very excited about it.”
Jackie Wiles, Alix Wilkinson, Mo Lebel, and Tricia Mangan did not finish but are OK.
Shiffrin remains first in the overall World Cup standings, while Brignone leads the super-G World Cup standings.
Heavy snowfall let up from Friday and Saturday, allowing the downhill to start from its traditional start house on Sunday. But in exchange for a cease in snowfall, the men had to battle heavy cloud coverage that made an already intimidating Hahnenkamm track even more fearsome. Racers flew through the Mausefalle jump in a cloud, fighting fog and flat light on top of the already wild terrain throughout the entirety of the course.
In Kitzbuhel Switzerland’s Beat Fuez and Marco Odermatt skied fearlessly to come out on top, finishing first and second respectively. Austria’s Daniel Hemetsberger followed close behind in third.
Friday's winner, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, finished in sixth but continues to lead the men's downhill standings over Fuez. Odermatt finished fifth in Friday's first downhill race down the fearsome Streif course behind overall rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde to see his overall FIS World Cup lead cut down by 55 points.
The last time that Swiss racers finished 1st and 2nd on a downhill podium in Kitzbühel was in 1992 (Franz Heinzer and Daniel Mahrer).
Daniel Hemetsberger (AUT), was the first to go down the Streif in today’s race, and in the end, his performance was enough to earn him his first downhill World Cup podium result on home soil and on one of the toughest courses. As stated after the race, “It’s the greatest feeling I’ve had whilst skiing.”
Once again, Matthias Mayer (AUT), was a split of a second from landing on the podiumin Kitzbühel. In both Friday’s and today’ downhill race, the Austrian missed out on 3rd place by 0.04 seconds.
After opting out of Saturday's slalom, Odermatt was seventh out the start gate on Sunday at Kitzbühel's second downhill race and produced a brilliant controlled run of 1:56.89 in worsening weather conditions.
Former winner Italian Dominik Paris battled hard for seventh place as Odermatt cut Kilde's downhill title lead to 44 points with two races left and extended his overall lead to 375 points over Kilde.
Odermatt, 24, has only 22 FIS World Cup downhill starts, but now has runner-up finishes in the last month at three of the most challenging courses of Bormio, Wengen and now the Kitzbühel classic.
Four Americans broke into the top 25 in the second Kitzbuehel downhill of the weekend, led by Travis Ganong in 11th. Bryce Bennett was 0.12 seconds behind Ganong in 12th. Jared Goldberg matched his all-time best finish on the Streif in 19th, and Steven Nyman rounded out the day of point finishes for the U.S. men in 21st.
Fellow Americans Sam Morse finished just outside of the points in 35th. Erik Arvidsson finished his first World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel in 43rd. Ryan Cochran-Siegle did not finish.
