Sofia Goggia: How I can challenge Mikaela Shiffrin for the overall title

Alpine ski star Sofia Goggia describes her season as "lights and shadows" and "two-sided", after giving herself a 7/10 mark as she claimed her third World Cup title in downhill at the Finals in Courchevel, France.

The Italian - who won't race in the Super G on Thursday (17 March) - wrapped up the best campaign of her career with a record six wins in the circuit, including four in her favourite discipline:

“I had my most successful season in World Cup, I won an Olympic medal - a beautiful silver - and I reached incredible levels, especially in the first part,” the PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist told reporters after claiming the discipline crystal globe trophy for 2021/22.

“Until the end of January I had always been competitive, also in Super G, and before Cortina I was leading the overall standings,” the Italian added.

Goggia’s unbeaten streak in downhill, which started in December 2020, came to a stop in mid-January when she crashed out in Zauchensee-Altenmarkt, Austria, and one week later a serious knee injury suffered at the Cortina d’Ampezzo Super G changed the course of her season.

"We skiers are like trains going at 200 km/h. Suddenly my train stopped, I had to fix some pieces and had to restart, trying to catch up with the other trains, who were already going fast, while I was restrained by a mechanical... What I had to do since Cortina has been exhausting.

"After my crashes in Altenmarkt and Cortina, I had to start skiing in a completely opposite way, under the mental and physical aspects. While everything before came natural and easy, later I had to face a different situation and I understood that I still need to work on many things."

Last month the Italian completed a prodigious recovery which took her to clinch silver in the Beijing 2022 downhill, just 23 days after her injury, behind winner Corinne Suter:

"At the Olympics I did something that seemed impossible: in those conditions, I found energies that allowed me to overcome my limits. That silver probably is worth more that this globe," she admitted.

Goggia: Fighting for the overall globe next season?

Before her injury, Goggia was in contention for the overall title, which now represents a goal for the seasons to come.

"I admit that I thought about it. I had left a space for it in my bookshelf and now this downhill globe will occupy it. For the future, I think that I need to make a space for it, worst case this space won’t be filled but it’s always better to be prepared…

"This season I think (Mikaela) Shiffrin is going to win the big globe despite not having dominated in any discipline. She’s fighting for the title with (Petra) Vlhova, who won almost all the slaloms and won a giant slalom, but has scored very few points in speed. If I had managed to keep my winning rate from the beginning of the season, probably I wouldn’t have been that far away…"

So what does she need to challenge Shiffrin in the future?

"Consistency, but probably a solid technical basis is even more important. If you are just physically strong, you always need to be at the top, but when you lack some strength, you can’t hide your technical mistakes anymore.

"I need to build a strong technical basis so I can ski well regardless of my physical conditions. I need to discuss my future strategy with my staff, but this is the direction that I need to take and I’ve already started going this way."

Goggia: Chasing a world title

Next year Courchevel will host the World Championships and Goggia, who won bronze and silver in the competition before, is still looking for a gold medal:

"It’s something that I want… I often hear many mums telling their daughters, ‘Sofia is a world champion…’ Then I have to say, ‘No, I have won the Olympics, but I haven’t won a world title yet…’ So that would be something nice to add to my trophy cabinet, since I have two medals, but not of the best colour…"