Season Over For Sofia Goggia, Gut Behrami Wins Again In Super-G

Sofia Goggia had a crash on her way down the mountain after the cancelled super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Sunday. The 28-year-old has a injury to the right knee and had an MRI after returning to Italy. The diagnosis was a compound fracture of the lateral tibial plateau of the right knee. In the coming daysGoggia will be evaluated to determne the exact recovery time, but it is clear that she will not take part in the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo that will start on Monday, February 8.

Later  the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in a post on Instagram that the injury was season-ending. Having won four-straight downhill races this season, Goggia was a clear favorite for the downhill title on home turf in Cortina d’Ampezzo. 

During her career, Goggia has been repeatedly plagued by injuries, starting from 2010, when she torn the ACL of both knees at different times. Returning to competitive activity, in February 2012 she suffered a strain to the collateral ligaments of both knees and a fracture of the tibial plateau of the right leg. In 2014 it was the turn of the cruciate ligament in his right knee. In October 2018 she fractured the peroneal malleolus of her right leg during a training session in Hintertux, in February 2020 a compound radio fracture of her left arm on the track of Garmisch put an early end to her competition season. All these injuries did not stop her from winning eleven World Cup victories with a third place in the overall 2016/17, the triumph in the downhill World Cup 2017/18, two medals at the World Championship (silver in super-G in Are 2019 and a bronze in giant in St. Moritz 2017) and the Olympic title in downhill in PyoengChang 2018.

Switzerland’s Lara Gut won her fourth-straight super-G victory of the season, showing she’s in top form heading into the upcoming FIS Ski World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who is leading in the overall standings but has been inconsistent of late, was a surprising second, just .28 seconds off of Gut, to grab her first World Cup super-G podium. This was Vlhova’s first podium since she won the Zagreb, Croatia slalom, early in January. Austria’s Tamara Tippler rounded out the podium in third, .74 off the pace. It was Gut Behrami’s 30 career World cup victory with 16 of those wins coming in her signature discipline.

Once again today, Gut-Behrami raced the cleanest line leaving little doubt of her victory when she came down with bib #7 nearly a second ahead of the then-leader Kajsa Vickhoff Lie.

The only athlete that gave Gut-Behrami a tense moment was current overall World Cup leader Petra Vlhova, who surprised with her time just 0.24 seconds off the winning pace. Vlhova likely could have earned the win today, but a mistake mid-race cost her valuable time.

Thanks to her second-place finish today, Vlhova still holds the Overall World Cup lead by 42-points with 11 races left in the World Cup season. With two super-G’s remaining on the 2020-21 calendar, Gut Behrami has all but locked up the small globe in the discipline, with only an outside mathematical chance she could be overtaken.

Rounding out the podium was Austrian Tamara Tippler, who finished 0.74 seconds back. It was her third podium of the year as she looks to be peaking just in time for the upcoming World Championships.

U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Breezy Johnson grabbed her first FIS Ski World Cup super-G points of the season, landing in 20th, to lead three into the points in the second of two super-G races on Monday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Bella Wright was 27th, and the young up-and-comer, AJ Hurt, was 30th.

Switzerland’s Lara Gut won her fourth-straight super-G victory of the season, showing she’s in top form heading into the upcoming FIS Ski World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who is leading in the overall standings but has been inconsistent of late, was a surprising second, just .28 seconds off of Gut, to grab her first World Cup super-G podium. This was Vlhova’s first podium since she won the Zagreb, Croatia slalom, early in January. Austria’s Tamara Tippler rounded out the podium in third, .74 off the pace.

Johnson has struggled to find the points in super-G so far this season but has grabbed five top-five results in downhill, including four successive podiums (third-place finishes). With warm temperatures and rain/snow in the forecast in Garmisch, organizers were forced to cancel the originally scheduled downhill and replace it with another super-G. Johnson was bummed about that, seeing as though she was a favorite for the downhill heading into the weekend. Not only did Johnson score her first World Cup points at the German venue, but she also scored her first top-five there. After just missing the points in Saturday’s super-G, Johnson showed on Monday she can hang with the best in super-G too.

“I feel very relieved,” she reflected in the finish. “Super-G has been a bit of an enigma to me this season, but it's good to be back in the 30 and feel like I had some good skiing again. I am definitely looking forward to the Cortina super-G. That track is really fun and I've only ever raced it once because of a number of things including the race getting cancelled three people from me. So, both excited to go back for that super-G and a little bit of a bone to pick with that super-G, too.” she laughed.

Wright continues to show consistency, finding her home in the points for a seventh straight time on Sunday. The young 20-year-old AJ Hurt also was in the points for the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team, grabbing 30th. Hurt has scored in an impressive four events this season, including parallel, slalom, giant slalom, and super-G.