Alpine skiing-Swiss Suter pips Italy's Goggia to women's downhill gold

YANQING, China :Switzerland's Corinne Suter powered to the gold medal in a thrilling women's downhill race at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, pipping Italy's defending champion Sofia Goggia to the title by 0.16 seconds.

Suter, the reigning downhill world champion, swept down the piste, known as 'The Rock', in a time of 1:31.87, to knock Goggia off the top of the leaderboard and end her dream of a remarkable comeback repeat.

"It's my biggest dream in my life, so today I don't know what to say," said Suter after a race which had been delayed by 30 minutes due to high winds in the upper section.

"In the finish area I wasn't sure if it was good or not, because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side. It was not so easy today, but now I'm super happy."

The 29-year-old Goggia, who had fought back to fitness after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury in a crash at Cortina d'Ampezzo last month, had to settle for the silver medal with her compatriot Nadia Delago taking bronze.

Goggia, the Pyeongchang 2018 winner and the dominant force in women's downhill, let out a huge scream at the finish line as she moved ahead of Delago into top spot, giving her the chance of a remarkable repeat win and an Italian sweep of the medals.

But then the 27-year-old Suter, Goggia's closest challenger on the World Cup circuit, produced an outstanding run to grab the top spot and put Switzerland in position for a fourth gold medal at these Games in Alpine skiing.

"I gave everything I could. I was really happy with my skiing," said Goggia.

"In the end I'm happy with my result, because being here at the Olympics after my crash in Cortina was not guaranteed at all.

"It's still a medal. It's still