The speed season has officially begun today in Val D’Isere with a perfect day, compact snow, and a challenging slope, much faster than the training days.
World Cup Downhill champion Corinne Suter (SUI) won the season-opening race today in Val d'Isère.
Suter fought this challenge with an incredible performance, taking big risks but finishing 0.11 ahead of Sofia Goggia (ITA) who at the same time had taken countless risks to try to beat her. The Swiss got the better of the competition and returned to the top step that she only conquered once in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee last season, but proved that the downhill globe delivered home is proof of her continued growth and dominance.
“It was a difficult race. The top and middle parts were good, on the bottom I made some mistakes. After the finish I thought it wouldn’t be enough for the win", said Suter.
In second place was Sofia Goggia (ITA) who finally returned to the podium after Crans Montana 2019, but what mattered most was the skiing she showed, more confident and above all faster on the skis.
Training runs have seen Breezy Johnson (USA) perform impressively. The American skier recorded the second-fastest time in the first training run, before recording the quickest effort of the day in her second. Today's race proved Breezy's consistency as she took her first career podium.
"I don’t think anything has sunk in yet, so I think I’m probably just going to keep it that way and just keep working towards tomorrow, (...) The snow in most places was actually a lot better, it was just a little bumpier in some spots, and a lot faster with the race wax and everybody going for it. It was a good race", Johnson said.
Good and bad points mark Val d’Isere’s first downhill race with important returns to the top 10 as Ilka Sthuec fourth and Ragnhild Mowinckel ninth, returning from injury. Unfortunately, the dark side of today was the numerous falls on the Beltrametti crossbar starting with Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT), Federica Brigone (ITA), Joana Haehlen (SUI), Alice Mckennis Duran (USA), and Laura Gauche (FRA).
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