'So much fun': Suter back on winner's list in Soldeu

Corinne Suter (SUI/Head) is no longer the reigning Olympic Downhill champion, but she is a World Cup winner once more.

The Swiss veteran won her first World Cup race in over three years in the Andorran resort of Soldeu on Friday, skiing a near-flawless run in perfect conditions to outclass the field.

In the first Downhill race since she relinquished her Olympic title to Breezy Johnson (USA/Atomic), Suter set a blistering early pace with bib No.4 to triumph over Nina Ortlieb (AUT/Head, +0.11s) and Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic, +0.24s).

"I know no girl who doesn't like to race here," Suter said in the sunshine after the race. "It's so much fun."

After suffering multiple leg injuries in a training accident in December, Suter made her season debut in January but finished outside the top 10 in her first six races — including 14th in the Olympic Downhill — as she worked her way back into form.

On Friday, the 31-year-old showed she was all the way back, recording the fastest time on the first three sectors of the course and doing enough on the sweeping Super G turns on the mid-lower section to stay on top.

"Here, this slope, you have to ski from the top to the bottom with no mistakes," she said. "It's so hard when you have a mistake to be fast again, you lose so much time."

It was Suter's first World Cup win since she triumphed in a Super G in Lake Louise in December 2022, and her first World Cup Downhill win since January 2022 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a month before her Olympic victory in Beijing.

"It was not so easy with the (injury at the) start of the season," Suter admitted. "It takes a lot of time until now, but today is a special day for me and I had so much fun on the hill, and this is also why I was very fast."

Coming off the top time in Thursday's second training run, Ortlieb took a big lead with bib No.3, only to see Suter pass her as the very next skier, though no one else was able to do so as the course warmed up under bright sunshine.

"I like the conditions, I like the track, and I also like skiing in good weather, and so I was happy that we had all these conditions today," Ortlieb said.

"I also got a really good bib today. I think at the beginning of the race, with this temperature, it's a little advantage."

The oft-injured 29-year-old reached her first World Cup podium in almost three years, since winning a Super G in Kvitfjell in March 2023.

"I deserve this podium after all I've been through the last couple of years," she said. "It's good for me to see that it was worth it to fight back."

Three skiers after Ortlieb, as the first racer in the top-seeded group, Goggia found herself playing catchup after falling behind the top two on the gliding top section, and although she made up time in the fourth sector, it wasn't enough.

"I'm really happy with my performance, it was really solid," said Goggia, who also finished third in the Olympic Downhill race in Cortina.

"I knew that Corinne and Nina were really, really fast on the top part, which was flat, and I had to contain my gap (deficit) and recover something in the technical part. I did it, but it didn't last."

With World Cup Downhill leader Lindsey Vonn (USA/Head) out for the season, Goggia and Emma Aicher (GER/Head, 4th) made up the most ground of her closest pursuers.

Aicher drew to within 94 points of Vonn in second place with her 50-point score, while Goggia moved up into fourth place and within striking distance.

"I'm not thinking about the Downhill globe," said Goggia, who still trails Vonn by 160 points. "We have all seen that Lindsey has a kind of supremacy this season, and I'm really living day by day."

That approach will see Goggia quickly switch her focus to the Super G races in Soldeu on Saturday and Sunday, but she isn't the only one excited about taking on the Agila course again.

"With (the win) today it for sure gave me a lot of confidence and I'm already looking forward to the next two races here," Suter said.

Click here for full results from Friday's race and the updated Downhill standings, and please head to Reuters Connect and Actionpress.de to view and purchase a wide selection of photographs from this race and from all FIS events.