There’s no better way to start the World Cup Finals with two nail-biting downhill races. The men’s race had four racers challenging for the small globe, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR), Beat Feuz (SUI), Matthias Mayer (AUT) and Dominik Paris (ITA). The women’s race was ultimately a head-to-head battle between reigning downhill World Cup champion, Sofia Goggia (ITA) and Olympic downhill champion, Corinne Suter (SUI).
Racing to retain his downhill World Cup title, Feuz tackled the course first and set an impressive time of 1:50.97, which Kilde could not beat. Kilde finished 0.31 seconds behind Feuz which put his chances of winning the downhill globe at risk.
Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) gave it his all in the final downhill of the season and clocked in the fastest time of the day, winning his second downhill of the season. Marco Odermatt (SUI) who was still chasing his first downhill victory finished 0.34 seconds off the leader, claiming his fourth downhill podium of the season. Luckily for Kilde, having both Odermatt and Kriechmayr finish ahead of Feuz, was enough to secure the downhill globe by a slim 13 points.
The second-place finish by Odermatt was also enough for the young Swiss star to secure his first career Overall Titile.
On the women's side, to win the downhill globe, Suter needed to win the race and claim all 100 points to go ahead of Goggia. However, the battle was quickly over as she finished 19th.
Goggia, who tackled the course after Suter knew that she just needed to finish the race to claim the downhill globe and finished 12th. After having a rollercoaster of a season and coming back from a big injury, the sheer determination Goggia showed to claim the title was remarkable.
The race victory went to Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), who claimed her third downhill victory in her career. Already at the top of the overall standings, another 100 points put her 156 points ahead of Petra Vlhova (SVK) with only three races to go. Tied in second place, were Christine Scheyer (AUT) and Joana Haehlen (SUI), only 0.10 seconds off Shiffrin. It was Scheyer’s first downhill podium finish since 2017, and Haehlen’s best downhill result.
The World Cup Finals continue tomorrow with the super-G. Both the men’s and women’s super-G globes have already been won by Kilde and Federica Brignone (ITA), respectively. The women’s race is scheduled to start at 10:00 CET, whilst the men’s kicks off at 11:30 CET.