Norwegian Rocknhild Mowinkel won the opening number race at Cortina d'Ampezzo, which was overshadowed by wind interference and crashes.
After nearly two hours at the start of the descent, Rockhild Mowinkel took the lead on Saturday from Italian Sofia Goccia, who was third. Jacqueline Wiles of the United States finished second, with the previous day's winner Stephanie Venier fifth in a race that was affected by wind speed. The Tyrolean was 27 hundredths short of Saturday's podium.
At the same time as Venier, the Swiss Laura Good-Behrami departed. Cornelia Hutter finished seventh, three hundredths behind (+0.74). Mirzam Buchner was only good enough for 13th place (+1.19). Christina Ager – third on the podium for the first time the day before – finished 17th immediately behind Ariane Radler. There was a long break after starting No. 17 as the wind picked up in the middle section. After that, the history of the season's fifth descent was rewritten.
First, 20th-ranked Norwegian Movinkel took advantage of the low wind and Tofana to claim his fourth World Cup victory, the first downhill. After six starts, Wiles had the biggest win of his career to date. “Long distance and sunlight make driving easier,” suspects ORF expert Alexandra Meisnitzer. “It's snowing and they probably have a better grip.” Austria's top aces reached the finish line before long.
The aftermath of Friday's extravaganza was seen in the starting list, with some athletes missing. Including Mikaela Shiffrin, who reportedly injured her hamstring and announced she would miss the weekend in the Dolomites and the following giant slalom in Kronplatz. Also missing are Swiss Corinne Suder (torn cruciate ligament) and Michael Kissin, and Austrians Sabrina Meyer (hip tumor) and Mikaela Heider (waiting).
Jumping into the delta curve caused trouble again. American Isabella Wright fell down, then ended up with a brace. Elsewhere, Jonah Hallen writhes in pain. The Swiss woman put too much pressure on her left knee during the landing after the crash. The scene was reminiscent of Sutter's accident the day before.
Considering the many accidents, experienced Gut-Behrami also held drivers responsible. “Then, when I was 20 years old, I learned that the ice was faster and the jumps went further,” Gut-Behrami said in the ORF report. “Now you're looking for that exact centimeter, but you don't always feel like driving actively. It's like the basics have been forgotten.”
The big picture is obscured by the details, Good-Behrami explained. “Radio news takes forever. Every meter has to be analysed, if something doesn't work, you're in the net immediately,” said the 40-time World Cup winner. Now camera operator Nicole Schmidhofer issued a similar statement, saying Tofana was no more dangerous than usual. Styrian demanded tactically intelligent driving; She would have slowed down a bit before the delta jump.
Hütter did exactly that. She invested in taxes here and there. “I wanted to drive some passages tricky. Normally I go into the race and think to myself: every passage is full, but that's not possible today,” said Styrian, who was fifth before the interruption. Hutter said he was “90 percent successful” in executing the unusual trick. Their premier discipline, Super-G, follows on Sunday (10:30). Second place in Jacqueline and after his win the day before, Venier had his third best result of this downhill season.
