Sofia Goggia wins third downhill Crystal Globe in Courchevel
The Italian finished in front of Olympic champion Corinne Suter at the Alpine Ski World Cup Finals in France to clinch the downhill title, as Mikaela Shiffrin won the last event.
Alpine Skiing
Sofia Goggia comfortably secured the 2021/22 downhill Crystal Globe despite a 12th-place finish in the final event at the Alpine Ski World Cup Finals on Wednesday (16 March) in Courchevel, France.
The race win went to overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin, who claimed just her third career downhill victory.
Olympic silver medallist from Beijing 2022, Goggia only needed to hold off Switzerland's Corinne Suter - her closest rival in the downhill rankings - to win the title.
But the reigning Olympic champion handed the title to the Italian after labouring to a 1.27.98 finish, which was the slowest time after three racers.
It meant that Goggia just needed to complete the race in order to clinch her third Crystal Globe, which she did in a time of 1.27.68.
Before the final downhill, the Bergamo-born skier was holding a 75-point lead over the Swiss, meaning that a top-10 finish would have guaranteed her the globe.
The PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist claimed her third World Cup title in the discipline, the second consecutive. Her idol and mentor Lindsey Vonn was the last woman to win the downhill globe in two successive seasons (2015 and 2016).
"Now I'm really happy. As you all know, my season was really a roller-coaster," the 29-year-old told FIS after the race.
The Italian had won three back-to-back downhilll races this season, before crashing in Zauchensee, Austria. Then, a day after her fourth downhill win, she suffered a serious knee injury at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Super G, which put in danger her participation in the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
"It was perfect until January and with these two crashes, I... it was really hard to be at the Olympics, and the recover I had to do was just off skis, and this is why I'm not skiing so well.
But in the end it was enough to achieve the globe and I'm really happy with that. If I could change anything? For sure I wouldn't have crashed (laughs) and I would have better handled myself during the season..."