Ilka Stuhec scored his first alpine skiing World Cup victory in over four years in the Cortina d’Ampezzo downhill on Saturday (January 21).
The two-time downhill world champion Slovenia was second behind the World Cup leader Sofia Goggia on Friday, but the home favorite fell as he looked for a course to take the lead.
It was Stuhec’s 10th career World Cup victory and after the top 15 starters were eliminated, she was visibly emotional in the leader’s seat.
He wears bib number 30, Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lies he returned to form with a bang with the second place of his compatriot Goggia Elena Curtoni.
Stuhec, 32, considered retiring before this season, but told the FIS of her joy that she had decided to continue racing.
She said, “I kept going. I trusted my inner feelings that I would fight to change the things I felt I needed to. Now I’m having fun again and it’s really fun to win.”
Mikaela Shiffrin – pursuit of 83rd World Cup victory to a halt Lindsey Vonn women’s record – was seventh, overtaking Stuhec on time in the upper half.
The American who extended her advantage Petr Vlhova in the overall World Cup standings to a whopping 485 points, she’ll be eager to outshine Vonn’s mark in Sunday’s super-G.
Stuhec’s victory reduced the gap to Goggia in the downhill World Cup standings to 108 points.
Stuhec gains after Goggia fails to complete Cortina’s double
Strong winds have made the course much shorter since Friday, with times close to 30 seconds faster.
Goggia had to wait almost 10 minutes to start the descent later Nina Ortlieb suffered a nasty-looking fall, and the Austrian was finally able to climb down carefully.
The Italian star was going well before losing form during a corner midway down the descent and crashing into the deck at the next corner.
The 2018 PyeongChang downhill champion was able to stand up and ski down on her own, which was warmly welcomed by her adoring fans.
Stuhec followed Goggia and earlier gained a significant advantage over the top half the clock stops at 1:04.73taking the lead from Mowinckel.
Curtoni was next, and the home fans were thrilled as she skied in the middle of the course better than anyone else.
She was 0.34 behind Stuhec’s time, but ahead of Mowinckel by one-hundredth of a second.
Wearing bib number 20, Gut-Behrami finished strong, matching Mowinckel’s time and joining the Norwegian in third place.
After a long injury break, Vickhoff Lie made an excellent run and beat Stuhec in the upper half of the field.
She moved up to second place with Mowinckel, despite falling off the podium, she was the first to happily celebrate with her teammate.
With the reigning Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter absent after suffering bruises in a serious accident on Friday, Gut-Behrami was the best Swiss driver of the day with Priska Nufer just after the fifth.
Results of the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Saturday 21 January (Top 10):
1. Ilka Stuhec (SLO) 1:04.73
2. Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (NOR) +0.26
3. Elena Curtoni (Italy) +0.34
4= Ragnhilde Mowinckel (NOR), Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) +0.35
6. Priska Nufer (SUI) +0.37
7. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) +0.39
8. Stephanie Venier (Austria) +0.44
9. Miriam Puchner (AUT) +0.50
10 = Michelle Gisin (SUI), Breezy Johnson (US) +0.64
