Sofia Goggia started fast in the 2022/2023 FIS World Cup downhill title race to claim back-to-back victories in Lake Louise as Marco Odermatt secured two Beaver Creek podium places and Japan’s Anri Kawamura earned a moguls podium in Finland.
Goggia powered down the Lake Louise downhill course on Friday in a time of 1:47.81 to edge out Switzerland’s Corinne Suter by 0.04s and Austrian Cornelia Hütter by 0.06s for her first 2022/2023 season victory.
The Italian followed up on Saturday – where the start of the course was lowered down the hill due to unsafe wind conditions – with an even more impressive victory in a time of 1:28.96 to defeat Austrian Nina Ortlieb by 0.34s with Suter banking another podium back in third 0.37s behind.
The two wins and fifth place in Sunday’s Super G – where Kiwi Alice Robinson finished 18th – leaves Goggia 60 points clear of Suter in the early downhill standings and 20 points behind American Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall standings heading into Sestriere next weekend.
Three-time FIS World Cup downhill champion Goggia, 30, said: “Today (Saturday) was a quite perfect run. There was a lot of wind at the start. We had to be focused and committed today.
I skied the perfect run I wanted to in my head. The last two years were unbelievable for me here. Here I broke my knee in 2013 and in 2016 got my first podium in the speed circuit here. And now winning five in a row is incredible.”
Switzerland’s Odermatt finished second behind main rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in the Beaver Creek downhill on Saturday as Canadian James Crawford rounded out the podium in third.
Odermatt was only 0.06s behind the Norwegian as Italian Dominik Paris ended in 20th, German Thomas Dressen 24th, Frenchman Alexis Pinturault 33rd and Swiss Loïc Meillard 45th.
On Sunday, Kilde got the better of Odermatt again to clinch the Super G win with the Swiss second 0.20s behind and Pinturault back to his usual form with an excellent third place 0.30s back.
Paris finished in 32nd, Meillard 33rd and Dressen 37th with Kilde’s two victories cutting Odermatt’s FIS World Cup overall lead to 40 points with Kilde holding a 60-point lead over Odermatt in the downhill standings and the pair tied at the top of the Super G standings with 180 points.
In the women’s moguls on Saturday at Ruka in Finland, Japan’s Anri Kawamura scored 78.33 to finish third behind winner Jakara Anthony of Australia and Perrine Laffont of France in second.