Austria’s Cornelia Huetter swept to victory in the season-opening women’s World Cup downhill race at Beaver Creek’s iconic Birds of Prey course on Saturday.
The 32-year-old reigning women’s downhill champion crossed in a blistering time of 1min 32.38sec to pip Italy’s 2018 Olympic gold medallist Sofia Goggia.
Goggia, looking to add to her tally of 18 World Cup downhill victories, finished second in 1:32.54, just 0.16sec behind Huetter.
Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami was third in 1:32.72 while Lauren Macuga of the United States just missed out on a podium finish to take fourth in 1:32.90.
“It was not easy. I had a feeling in training that I’m not skiing how I want to ski, but it was all in all good,” Huetter said afterwards.
“I had a solid speed and with the tricky turns, I think I did really good today — I took all the speed with me. So I think that was the secret today.”
Huetter, who missed most of the 2020 and 2021 seasons through injury, said the intensity of competition brought out the best in her.
“Race Day is race day,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not easy for me to give 100% in training — I need to wear the bib, and hear the beep at the start. After all the tough years, it’s nice to be able to be in that position and ski like that, not only today but in general.
“My knees are good, my head sometimes is a little bit crazy, but yeah, that’s life. All in all, today, it was good.”
Saturday’s event in Colorado marked the first time women have raced on Beaver Creek’s demanding Birds of Prey course, one of alpine skiing’s most challenging runs.
The course, which has a vertical drop of some 2,470 feet (757 meters) has been used on the men’s circuit for years but has not hosted a women’s downhil before.
Saturday’s event meanwhile saw US skiing legend Lindsey Vonn warm up for her return to World Cup racing at St. Moritz next week with a troublefree outing as a fore-runner.
The 40-year-old Vonn confirmed on Friday she will race next week, nearly six years after retiring from the sport.
Vonn punched the air in delight after safely completing the course with a smooth performance which delighted fans gathered near the finish.