Just like 24 hours before, Goggia won the downhill in Lake Louise and has now won five races in a row in the Canadian resort. In the end, Ortlieb from Vorarlberg was 0.34 seconds behind her first downhill victory. Third on Saturday was Olympic champion Corinne Suter from Switzerland.
Ortlieb made her racing comeback in Banff National Park on Friday after sustaining severe knee injuries in January 2021. During a training fall in Crans-Montana, the 26-year-old suffered almost total damage in her right knee, as the anterior cruciate ligament, medial ligament, lateral meniscus and patellar tendon were torn. Now the daughter of Patrick Ortlieb Goggia with start number 26 delivered a close race, only in the final part, where the Italian was in a league of her own, did the gap increase noticeably.
“I’m a bit speechless myself,” said Ortlieb in an ORF interview after her best result in a World Cup downhill. “The run went really well for me. I tried to give everything. We noticed that the conditions are difficult, that you really have to fight, and I think I really managed that. I’m proud of mine today too Perfomance.”
The second best Austrian over a distance shortened by gusty winds was Mirjam Puchner in fifth. The woman from Salzburg perhaps drove a little too cleanly in the first section and swung a little behind. Goggia was 0.97 seconds faster than Puchner, who had placed fourth the day before. “I have to look at where I’m losing so much time. Is it the start that I don’t come out on top of?” she puzzled a little at the finish. “There are just corners where I’m not quite as determined and where it probably just reduces my speed extremely on the snow. I have to do better tomorrow,” she said with regard to the Super-G on Sunday (19.00 Watch).
Ramona Siebenhofer (+1.68), who was also “a bit at a loss”, Ariane Rädler (+1.86) and Stephanie Venier (+1.93) did not come close to the top ten. Cornelia Hütter decided not to start due to physical complaints after the inspection. She noticed a headache and slight visual impairments in the morning, said the Styrian, who finished third on Saturday.
Because of the cancellation at short notice, the ÖSV could not send another runner into the race. Also absent was Elisabeth Reisinger, who suffered bruises from her fall the day before. The ailing Christine Scheyer also had to pass.
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Source: Nachrichten
