Ski racer Kira Weidle returned with a strong performance in the World Cup downhill in Zauchensee after her serious fall in training. Meanwhile, Sofia Goggia clinched her second win this winter.
Weidle came in a strong fifth place on Saturday (January 13th, 2024) and was rewarded with her best result of this World Cup season. She had already landed in the top 10 in St. Moritz. This time it even almost worked out with the podium. In the end, she was 0.12 seconds short of reaching the podium.
Weidle “takes a big load off his heart”
Weidle had a serious fall during training on Thursday and was therefore unable to complete the entire route. Their performance in the race was all the higher. “A big weight has fallen off my heart“, said the 27-year-old from SC Starnberg happily on ZDF afterwards.
“It’s exciting without a training run at all. I’m proud of myself for how I handled it. There were a few small errors, but overall I’m satisfied.“Because of the training fall, it’s for her”mentally one of the hardest descents” been.
Goggia takes its second win of the season
Sofia Goggia, who took her first downhill victory this winter, was unbeatable. She had previously won the Super G in St. Moritz. In Zauchensee, the Italian speed dominator of recent years mastered one of the most spectacular and challenging routes in the World Cup with an extremely aggressive driving style that ultimately made the difference. Nevertheless, her lead at the finish was narrow, just 0.10 seconds over Stephanie Venier from Austria.
Shared third place went to Venier’s compatriot Mirjam Puchner and Nicol Delago (Italy), who were each 0.34 seconds behind the leader. “Overall it was a solid ride, but in one passage it wasn’t entirely clean“, said Goggia about her race and her total of 18 World Cup downhill wins.
Sofia Goggia in the descent from Zauchsensee.
Weidle files the fall
Delago, who had already impressed in second place in training, immediately set the first benchmark time with start number one. Weidle also bit her teeth against the Italian as the sixth starter – although the 27-year-old showed a strong performance after her serious fall in training.
At the start and on the first third of the slope, Weidle was still a bit lacking in self-confidence, but after she passed the place where she fell, things went really well for Weidle. From the middle part with its technical passages she managed to make up a lot of time. In the meantime she even took the lead. It’s all the more annoying that the 2021 World Cup runner-up had to correct a small snag before the finish and couldn’t bring the narrow lead into the valley.
Goggia takes risks to win
Goggia was initially unable to keep up with Delago’s time at the start, but then found her line and picked up speed after the long hunter jump. With a lot of risk and an aggressive ride, the Olympic champion from Pyeongchang mastered the middle section in particular and rose to the top. She was even able to cope with a mistake shortly before the target shot.
Only Venier threatened her again, as she was able to gain a small lead after the steep starting slope. Only in the middle part of the route, which no one drove better than Goggia that day, did she lose the crucial tenths of a second.
Aicher is eliminated again
The second German starter, Emma Aicher (SC Mahlstetten), was again unable to finish the race. As in the Super G the day before, the 20-year-old was eliminated after jumping too far in the first part of the course.
Aicher fell and landed in the safety net, but was able to give the all-clear in an initial reaction. The Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie had previously fallen in the same place.
(As of 30 out of 50 drivers)