After her fall in the Super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Goggia is concerned about taking part in the Olympic speed races. Meanwhile, the Swiss Michelle Gisin is on the podium.
Rides Goggia style again on Sunday – and crashes: the Italian Sofia Goggia.
Elena Curtoni won the race in the third discipline ahead of Tamara Tippler and Michelle Gisin, who finished on the podium for the third time this winter. But the biggest sensation in Cortina d’Ampezzo was also in Super-G Sofia Goggia. The day after her downhill victory, the 29-year-old Italian fell badly – and now the ski world is wondering if Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, will be ready to start again when the Olympic speed races take place in China on February 11th and 15th will take place.
On Sunday evening, the Italian association reported the diagnosis: sprain and cruciate ligament injury in the left knee, a small fibula fracture. Goggia will start rehabilitation immediately, the goal is to be able to compete in the Olympic downhill on February 15th.
The untimely setback is déjà vu, as last winter Goggia missed the home World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo after falling on a tourist slope in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 31 and suffering a tibial plateau fracture in her right leg had. “At that moment I wanted to disappear from this world because I just couldn’t believe it,” Goggia said in an NZZ interview in December.
Third podium finish of the season in the third discipline: Michelle Gisin is strong in the Super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Goggia worked obsessively to get back on track as soon as possible. At the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide she wanted to make a comeback and take the lead in the downhill classification. Goggia was spared the effort, the race was canceled. She started the new speed season with three wins in three races, and in mid-December she won the seventh World Cup downhill in a row that she competed in. Overall, Goggia drove less aggressively than before, as if she had come clean after the many injuries that have accompanied her career. But recently the old style took over again, the Goggia style: wild rides, frenzied spectacle, regular moments of shock. Goggia asked in the NZZ interview whether that wasn’t beautiful and frightening at the same time.
When things are going well, beauty banishes all fear. But on the Saturday before last in Zauchensee, things didn’t go well, Goggia fell on the downhill, everything hurt after that, the next day she struggled to finish 19th in the Super-G. In Cortina d’Ampezzo she found her way back to winning, albeit with another run on a knife edge. Sofia Goggia spoke of her best World Cup victory on Saturday. Another big fight started on Sunday.
Cortina d’Ampezzo (ITA). Women’s World Cup Super G: 1. Elena Curtoni (ITA) 1:20.98. 2. Tamara Tippler (AUT) 0.09 behind. 3. Michelle Gisin (SUI) 0.24. 4. Federica Brignone (ITA) 0.32. 5. Corinne Suter (SUI) 0.44. 6.Tessa Worley (FRA) 0.54. 7. Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR) 0.59. 8. Ester Ledecka (CZE) 0.61. 9. Alice Robinson (NZL) 0.62. 10. Miriam Puchner (AUT) 0.66. 11.Jasmine Flury (SUI) 0.67. – 13. Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) 0.83. 16. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) 1.01. 18. Joana Haehlen (SUI) 1.18. 22. Jasmina Suter (SUI) 1.81. 25. Stephanie Jenal (SUI) 2.32. 29. Priska Nufer (SUI) 2.70. 30. Delia Durrer (SUI) 3.18. – Eliminated among others: Sofia Goggia (ITA), Noemie Kolly (SUI). – Not shown, among others: Breezy Johnson (USA/convalescent) and Ilka Stuhec (SLO/knee problems).