Corinne Suter thrived at last season’s Cortina world championships, while Italian star Sofia Goggia was painfully forced to sit out the races having fractured a bone in her right knee in a crash shortly before the marquee event.

Suter charged to a downhill gold medal and super-G silver on the Olympia Delle Tofane track last February, undoubtedly a career highlight, while Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion was relegated to watching the races from her home in Bergamo, roughly a four-hour drive from Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Despite contrasting motivations given their varied circumstances, both racers seem poised to contend for victories in the annual Cortina World Cup downhill and super-G races this Saturday and Sunday. The sun-splashed Italian Dolomites resort has been home to one of the most anticipated annual women’s tour stops since 1993.

“It’s really nice to be back here – I have the best memories of my career here last year winning the downhill,” Suter told Ski Racing Media after her first training run on Thursday. “The slope once again looks great, so I can’t wait to race here. It is a bit more bumpy, not like a highway like last year, so it’s going to be a little bit more tricky I think.”

Could another downhill triumph on familiar Italian snow be in the cards for the 27-year-old Swiss racer and former World Cup downhill champion?

“For sure, I’ll have to ski with my heart, try to go as fast as I can, straight through the gates and not two or three meters wide,” Suter said.

Goggia posted the fastest training time in Thursday’s opening training, clocking 1:37.83 on the 1.65-mile track, however she failed to make a gate between the second and third split times below the Delta turn. The extroverted Italian racer wasn’t overly concerned about the minor mistake, absorbing Cortina’s abundant sunshine, while tossing a tennis ball to her Australian Shepherd Belle in the finish area.

“I love Cortina – I missed it last year and actually the last time I raced here was in 2018,” Goggia said, shortly after her training run. “I’m happy to be back – I love everything about Cortina.

The two-time World Cup downhill champion noted that the ingredient to success will be finding the ideal race line on the twisting, turning slope with its signature Tofane Schuss section. Goggia clocked the top average speed at 97.9 kilometers-per-hour on Thursday.

Goggia had been unbeatable since returning from her injury, winning the first three downhills of the season to extend her remarkable winning streak to seven, before it abruptly ended with an untimely crash last Saturday in Zauchensee, Austria.

The Italian racer admits that she hasn’t yet returned to 100-percent physically

“I’m still not fully, fully recovered, but I’m feeling good and the most important thing is to get my confidence back on skis,” she said.

The 2018 Olympic downhill champion believers the key to success will be executing the ideal race line on the twisting, turning slope with its signature Tofane Schuss section.

Seeking her third downhill season title, Goggia currently leads the World Cup downhill standings with 300 points, 60 ahead of American Breezy Johnson. The Austrian Ramona Siebenhofer is third, lagging behind by 116 points, while Suter stands fourth, 119 back.

Siebenhofer is certainly another racer who should be a factor this weekend, especially given that she won consecutive downhill races on the Olympic Delle Tofane in 2019. Naturally, she is also excited to return to the 2021 world championship track.

Considering Goggia’s missed gate, the 31-year-old Austrian was the fastest racer in Thursday’s training, stopping the clock in 1:38.03. Siebenhofer says conditions are not quite the same as February.

“The snow is a little bit different, it’s a little bit faster, a little bit more bumpy, but it will be very nice to race,” Siebenhofer said.

“I will have to attack, take lots of risk, hold my line and aerodynamics, and then I think I will be on the podium again,” the Austrian said.

Jackie Wiles carries momentum into the weekend

Breezy Johnson, one of the top American medal contenders for the upcoming Beijing Olympics, will miss a second straight World Cup downhill after her second crash in two weeks.

Johnson fell during the second training session in Cortina on Friday and was removed from the start list for Saturday’s race.

Johnson’s teammate Jackie Wiles – who is still in the recovery process following two off-season knee surgeries – was also fast in training, finishing ninth, 1.10 seconds behind Goggia.

“I actually do feel like I’m 100-percent now – I know my body will never feel the same as before and I have to warm up quite a bit, but from where I was in the fall until now, I’m happy how my body feels,” Wiles says. “I have to keep working hard and not give up.”

Wiles – who tallied her first career World Cup points on the Italian track in January 2014, qualifying for the Sochi Olympic team – says her training run is a big confidence booster.

“It felt like it was a pretty solid run – I got late in a couple of spots, but I kept the skis linking and going,” Wiles said. “It is a quite a bit more rattle-y here than ever before so you really have to stick your nose in it, but it still is a fun run here.”

Mikaela Shiffrin has opted to skip the Cortina downhill, however, considering her ever-changing day-to-day schedule, the possibility exists that she could show up for Sunday’s super-G.

A wide range of contenders

Other notable names among the top finishers in training included Federica Brignone (third), Lara Gut-Behrami (fifth), Ester Ledecka (sixth) and Ragnhild Mowinckel (seven).

Like her Swiss teammate Suter, Gut-Behrami returns to Cortina with the satisfaction of having collected three world championship medals last February, including downhill bronze and super-G gold. The veteran Swiss won last Saturday’s downhill in Zauchensee and also nabbed World Cup downhill wins on the Cortina piste in 2014 and 2018. It is hard to bet against her.

Canadian Marie-Michelle Gagnon arrives in Cortina fresh off her best career downhill result, a fifth place last weekend in Austria.

“Now, I’m contending in some races, I am there in training, I’m enjoying the whole process and I just need to find (the speed) in races,” Gagnon said.

“You can really attack this kind of snow and it’s always a close race here. I just have to trust my skiing,” the Canadian skier added.

Don’t overlook Germany’s Kira Weidle, who continues to show improvement and quietly post top results. Weidle was a surprise silver medalist at the world championship downhill here and is also carrying the confidence of a career best, second-place result, last weekend in Austria.

The Cortina experience

While ski racing is priority ‘numero uno’ in Cortina, it is everything else about the 1956 Olympic resort, that annually provides unforgettable experiences for the women racers.

“I don’t know exactly what it is – it’s also the landscape,” Siebenhofer says, asked why everyone loves Cortina. “You come here, its sunny, it’s so nice, you wake up and the sun kisses your face, and you have very nice snow.

“I really like the Italian spirit also. You have some pasta at the hotel, everyone is chilled and it’s just very cool to be here.”

Not surprisingly, the Cortina weather looks near perfect for both Saturday’s downhill and Sunday’s super-G.

While the welcoming Cortina community and Italian ski racing enthusiasts across Northern Italy would love nothing more then to witness Goggia return to top form and win for the first time at the historic resort, other furry friends in her immediate circle aren’t quite as concerned.

“She just loves me no matter what,” Goggia says of her dog Belle, who is constantly by her side, tail-wagging and also relishing the moment in Cortina. “She doesn’t care if I am on the podium or finish in 20th place.”

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