San Francisco Frontiers - Goggia banishes Altenmarkt demons for first downhill win of season

The 31-year-old edged Austrian Stephanie Venier by 0.10sec after making up time on the flat part of the slope for an earlier error. Austrian Mirjam Puchner shared third place with Italy's Nicol Delago at 0.34sec.

Goggia admitted her run had "a few flaws at the top" but she powered down the slope to make up for her fall in Friday's super-G.

"I knew I could make a difference in the last part," she said after her 18th World Cup success in the discipline, and second win of the season after the St Moritz super-G.

"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."

The 31-year-old had never been on the podium before in the Austrian resort, where her best finish was fourth in the downhill four years ago and where she has fallen twice.

"I think I had a solid race, clean skiing mostly coming down the course," said Goggia.

Goggia, the four-time holder of the downhill globe, has been on the podium in 10 of the last 12 World Cup downhills but had not won in her favourite discipline since February 2023.

At the finish line on Saturday, she let out a cry of relief when she saw that she was in the lead.

"In Altenmarkt I never got any podium," she said. "First podium, first victory — I'll take it," she said.

The skier from Bergamo equalled teammate Federica Brignone for the most World Cup wins by an Italian women with 24.

Brignone slumped to 14th on the day with Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami sixth and Austrian Cornelia Huetter, winner of Friday's super-G, in 16th.

US star Mikaela Shiffrin, absent because of illness, leads the overall World Cup standings with 929 points, ahead of Brignone (765 points).

A second super-G will take place on Sunday.

L.Nguyen--SFF