Corinne Suter conquers her first World Cup win
Jan 11, 2020·Alpine Skiing
Two perfect downhill trainings were held in Altenmarkt and unfortunately, the race day wasn’t as lucky as the previous two in terms of weather.
In cooperation with the organizing committee, the jury decided to lower the start at the Hot Air Jump due to unstable weather forecast that also forced two race interruptions.
Despite those little changes of plan, the third downhill of the season has its winner and this time has been Corinne Suter who finally claimed her first World Cup victory showing race after race her consistency in every kind of conditions.
The 25-year-old Suter was second and fifth in the two previous downhills this season, both held at Lake Louise, Canada.
Attacking on an overcast day, Suter mastered the Altenmarkt course despite clocking only the seventh-best speed of 125 kph (78 mph) at the fastest check.
It could have been a Swiss Party, but it proved to be an Italian-Swiss show with 2 Swiss and 3 Italian ski racers in the top 5 positions.
Suter’s Swiss teammate Michelle Gisin was third, 0.98 back, two weeks after also placing third in a World Cup slalom, showing once again her great shape in all the disciplines she is competing on.
The Italian team continues in the wake of the podiums with Nicol Delago who slipped into the middle of the Swiss to finish the closest performance to Suter who seemed unbeatable today.
Sofia Goggia was fourth, 1.01 back, starting immediately after the second delay for fog followed by Francesca Marsaglia in fifth.
Suter now leads the season-long downhill standings from Ester Ledecka.
40 years of pure speed in Zauchensee
The weekend festivities are not only reserved for the athletes but also the organization. In fact, it will be exactly 40 years ago since the first World Cup race took place in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee ski area.
Perrine Pelen from France in Slalom and Jana Soltysova from the Czech Republic in Downhill were the first winners in Zauchensee in 1980. At that time the races still took place on the Gamskogel eastern slope. Both women were followed on the winners‘ podium in the years following 1980 by ski greats such as Petra Kronberger, Renate Götschl, Michaela Dorfmeister, Alexandra Meissnitzer, Elisabeth Görgl, Dominique Gisin or Christine Scheyer who have been honoured by the Local Organising Committee on the evening stage.
