Sofia Goggia of Italy overcomes windy conditions to earn another downhill victory in Cortina d'Ampezzo

Sofia Goggia survived a scare in tricky conditions to claim her fourth downhill victory in five races this season and cement her status as favourite for Olympic gold. The Italian, who will be one of her country's flag-bearers in Beijing, was pushed wide by the wind early on in front of her home fans in Cortina d'Ampezzo and almost missed a gate further down the run but recovered on both occasions to cross in 1:06.98s.

Ad/> That put her two-tenths of a second clear of her nearest challenger, Austria's Ramona Siebenhofer, who climbed above Breezy Johnson into second in the overall World Cup downhill standings following the American's withdrawal due to a crash in training. Beijing 2022Shiffrin shakes up coaching team ahead of Olympics with Lackie departure18/01/2022 AT 10:24 /> Czech ace Ester Ledecka edged out Corinne Suter to take the final spot on the podium but Goggia remains the woman to beat as she sets her sights on defending her Olympic crown.

«It was really tough, I knew I had to push as hard as I could because the start with the first section is not my best part,» said the 29-year-old, who sits third in the overall World Cup standings — 197 points behind leader Mikaela Shiffrin. Gut-Behrami takes second win of the season as Goggia crashes Italian Sofia Goggia heads top of overall World Cup rankings with downhill win «It was so windy, I couldn't see the surface while going down and I had the gates against me.

»I made really a lot of mistakes but I wanted to cross the finish line and dive into the love of the supporters. «I haven't raced here in Cortina since four years [ago] and it's so good to be back.

I did an incredible run, a bit strange lines, but I'm really happy. »Winning today in these conditions, it