Sofia Goggia continues downhill win streak at Val d'Isere
Italy's reigning Olympic champion clinches seventh consecutive World Cup downhill victory ahead of Breezy Johnson and Mirjam Puchner.
Sofia Goggia was simply awesome as she claimed her seventh straight Alpine Ski World Cup downhill victory on Saturday (18 December).
The Olympic downhill champion from PyeongChang 2018 attacked Val d'Isere, where she began her win streak 12 months ago, with her trademark aggression and provided a couple of heart-stopping moments on turns.
While she was not the fastest at the top of the OK piste, the undisputed speed queen was far quicker than most of her rivals on the bottom half as she secured her 15th career World Cup win.
Only USA's Breezy Johnson came close to Goggia lower down the course, finishing 0.27s outside the Italian's time of 1:41.71 as they repeated their one-two finishes in both Lake Louise downhills a fortnight ago.
Mirjam Puchner beat Austrian team-mate Ramona Siebenhofer to third for her third podium finish of the season.
Slovenia's double world champion Ilka Stuhec was fifth ahead of reigning world gold medallist Corinne Suter.
Goggia said afterwards, "I’m really happy today. Yesterday, I didn’t have the best feeling in the training run and I decided to change something on my setup. But when you’re at the start gate, you don’t have time to think about what’s under your feet. You just have to believe in yourself to do the best thing and I made like this in the race even though I made a few mistakes.
"I think I didn’t ski so so so well, but I gave all my heart."
Goggia's latest triumph saw her overtake Mikaela Shiffrin at the top of the overall World Cup standings.
The American now trails by 10 points after opting to skip this race, but both women will line up for the Super G on Sunday.
Lara Gut-Behrami was ruled out after testing positive for Covid with Switzerland's double world champion not racing again until after Christmas.
Women's downhill in Val d'Isere - Results
1. Sofia Goggia (ITA) 1:41.71
2. Breezy Johnson (USA) +0.27
3. Mirjam Puchner (AUT) +0.91
4. Ramona Siebenhofer (AUT) +1.33
5. Ilka Stuhec (SLO) +1.37
6. Corinne Suter (SUI) +1.43
7. Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR) +1.44
8. Nadia Delago (ITA) +1.45
9. Elena Curtoni (ITA) +1.52
10. Michelle Gisin (SUI) +1.61