Goggia defies broken hand to win St. Moritz downhill

Twenty-four hours after breaking her hand and being airlifted to hospital for surgery, Italy's Sofia Goggia was back in a familiar place: the top of a World Cup downhill podium.

"Yesterday it was broken, today it was already fixed," Goggia said after she won her third downhill race of the season in St. Moritz on Saturday ahead of Slovenia's Ilka Stuhec, with Germany's Kira Weidle claiming third.

Goggia raced with a plate and nine screws inserted in the swollen left hand that she fractured in two places on Friday, and also had makeshift holes cut into her glove.

She still skied a typically aggressive run on the full-length Corviglia course and won the race by 0.43 seconds, her 11th victory in the last 16 World Cup downhill races she has competed in.

"I couldn't push at the start gate and this is why I didn't have the gap of the training runs, but half a second is enough," she said of the victory margin. "Also one hundredth of a second is enough."

Goggia was taken by helicopter to Milan for surgery after Friday's race and it was questionable whether she could even participate on Saturday, let alone win the race.

"I'm really happy, I'm really grateful because it was not guaranteed at all that I could be at the start gate today," she said.

"I really understand that it was a bit risky, but I said to myself that after Beijing (when she recovered from a knee injury to win silver in the 2022 Olympic downhill), I could endure everything and this is exactly what I did."

After the foggy, snowy downhill on Friday, Saturday's race took place under blue skies and bright sunshine, with racers enjoying perfect conditions in the two-time Olympic host resort.

Stuhec, the double downhill world champion from 2017 and 2019, showed she still has plenty left in the tank at age 32 after coming second and reaching her first World Cup podium in nearly four years.

"I was actually surprised when I saw the time in the finish because I had a feeling that I am everywhere else than where I imagined," she said.

Weidle, who struggled in the poor conditions on Friday when she finished 24th, took the early lead with bib No. 6 and reached her first podium of the season in third place.

"Today was way, way better than yesterday so I'm very happy that I could switch my mind from yesterday to today," she said.

"Today was a new day, a new chance, a new me."

American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin backed up Friday's sixth place by finishing fourth, earning more valuable World Cup points in her chase for the overall crystal globe while showing that she can be a downhill threat.

"I just tried to be strong and tried to be in my tuck as much as I could, so I'm really happy," a delighted Shiffrin said.

It was an unhappy day for Swiss skiers on home snow, meanwhile, with Joana Haehlen the best of the locals in ninth place, while Friday's winner Elena Curtoni of Italy finished eighth.

The speed weekend in St. Moritz will conclude on Sunday with a super-G race.