(St. Moritz) Controlling her risk-taking under a white sky, the Italian Sofia Goggia won the first super-G of the Alpine Ski World Cup on Friday in St. Moritz (Switzerland), her first victory in the discipline since two years.
To achieve the 23rd success of her career on the world circuit, the 31-year-old from Bergamo created a clear gap with her rivals, ahead of the Austrian Cornelia Huetter by 95/100 and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami by 1 sec 02.
“I didn’t expect to win, especially with such a lead,” the Lombard woman told the Swiss channel RTS, explaining that she had difficulty reading the field and did not stick to the trajectory she had chosen in recognizing the trail.
But while the reduced visibility sent her compatriot Elena Curtoni into the net, Goggia was able to muzzle her usual enthusiasm and rely on her clear progress in giant, with three Top 10s in the first four races of the season (9th at Killington , 7th and 10th at Tremblant).
The undisputed queen of downhill, holder of the last three crystal globes in the discipline, moved up to 6th place in the general classification, still led by the American Mikaela Shiffrin, 4th on Friday, 1 sec 08 behind the Italian.
St-Moritz is launching the women’s speed season on a promising basis – while the men have already experienced five cancellations in five attempts, in Zermatt then Beaver Creek -, with Lara Gut-Behrami already in the game despite the lack of benchmarks.
“It’s a very good start to be on the podium,” rejoiced the skier from Comano, sparkling as a giant this fall (victories in Sölden and Killington), but who “still needs to get into the rhythm in speed “.
The reigning Olympic champion in super-G, a discipline where her reading of the terrain and her touch of snow work wonders, explained that she made “too many turns” and did not “dare” enough.
“It’s not a question of confidence, it’s really a question of timing, of letting go of the skis,” continued the 32-year-old Swiss, revealed on this same track with a first victory in super-G at just 17 years.
Shiffrin, for her part, was satisfied with her round, “her first super-G since April” due to a lack of good training conditions this summer – she who won last year after two years without success in this specialty .
The St. Moritz stage continues with a downhill on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.