The 30-year-old Austrian skier Stephanie Venierová won the downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo and claimed her second victory in the World Cup. The leading woman of the series, the American Mikaela Shiffrin, had a serious fall and was flown to the hospital by rescue helicopter. However, the suspected injury to the ligaments in the right knee was not confirmed during the examination at the hospital. Due to health problems, Ester Ledecká was absent from the start.
The spokeswoman for her team, Erika Alchusová, then announced that Ledecká will not start on Saturday either, but her participation is not excluded after all. After the early evening draw, the 28-year-old Czech is number one on the starting list.
Venier triumphed with a lead of 39 hundredths of a second over Switzerland’s Lara Gutova-Behrami and continued her five-year-old championship in the downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Three competitors shared the third place. The Italian Sofia Goggia, the Canadian Valérie Grenier and the Austrian Christina Ager, who reached the podium in the World Cup for the first time at the age of 28, had the same distance of 71 hundredths from the winner.
“I had a good feeling about the ride, but I didn’t expect that it would be enough for the first place,” said Venierová in a TV interview. Victory was already close two weeks ago in Zauchensee, where she finished second, one-tenth behind Goggia.
Shiffrin lost her balance on uneven terrain and crashed into the safety net after falling. The American star lay on the track for a moment before running away. But her team sent word from the hospital that she was fine. Recently in Wengen, her friend Nor Aleksander Aamodt Kilde also had a nasty fall, dislocating his shoulder, cutting his leg and the season was over for him.
It is not yet clear when Shiffrin will be able to return to the SP series. “We’re going to take it day by day now, heal what we need to and try to get her back up to speed,” Team USA coach Paul Kristofic said in a statement to the AP.
Olympic champion Corinne Suterová from Switzerland also fell in the same place as Shiffrinová. She also went to the hospital. An examination revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee and an injured meniscus, ending her season. Due to a bruised shin bone, two-time Olympic champion Michelle Gisin will no longer perform this weekend. 12 skiers did not finish the race, which was significantly prolonged due to frequent falls and interruptions.
Goggia consolidated her lead in the discipline evaluation. Thanks to the win, Venierova moved up to second place.
In Italy, Ledecká only took part in Wednesday’s training, which she completed only as a sight-seeing ride. Then, due to persistent health problems, she traveled to Innsbruck for a lung examination. She was on the starting list for today’s race with a triple, but she did not appear on the track. “Ester’s health is still not 100 percent. That’s why she will skip Saturday’s downhill as well. When she feels better on Saturday, she will at least ride the super giant slalom on Sunday,” Alchusová told CTK before noon.
A few hours later, Ledecka’s name was on the list of skiers who learned the starting numbers for Saturday’s downhill. The situation has changed. “Ester wants to race and she will definitely decide in the morning,” added Alchusová in the evening.
Ledecká has been dealing with health problems for almost two months. Despite a cough, she competed in both the skiing and snowboarding World Cups last week when she won both parallel slaloms in Pamporovo, Bulgaria. But then her condition worsened again. The team did not release details of the test results, but the problems persisted ahead of today’s race.
Ledecká returned to the skiing World Cup this season after missing last year due to treatment for a broken collarbone. Her best result on skis so far is the eleventh place in the super-giant slalom in Zauchensee, which took place on January 14.
SP race in downhill skiing in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy):
Women – downhill: 1. Venierová (Austria) 1:33.06, 2. Gutová-Behramiová (Switzerland) -0.39, 3. Grenierová (Can.), Agerová (Austria) and Goggiaová all -0, 71, 6. Pirovanová (both It.) -0.91.
Current ranking of the downhill (after 4 out of 10 races): 1. Goggiaová 290, 2. Venierová 216, 3. Gutová-Behramiová 164, 4. Puchnerová (Austria) 160, 5. Fluryová (Switzerland) 159, 6. Hütterová ( Cancer.) 157, …29. Ledecka (Czech Republic) 31.
Current WC standings (after 23 out of 43 races): 1. Shiffrin (USA) 1209, 2. Gutová-Behramiová 869, 3. Vlhová (SR) 802, 4. Brignone (It.) 787, 5. Hector (Sweden) 647, 6. Goggia 642, …57. Ledecka 76, 58. Dubovska 73, 106. Jelínková (both Czech Republic) 9.
2024-01-26 19:21:07
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