Czech Alpine skier Ester Ledecka won the downhill in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana.
For the 26-year-old Ester Ledecka, who won the Olympic title in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding earlier this month, it is the first victory of the season in the Alpine Ski World Cup and the third in her career.
On the alpine slope in Crans-Montana Ester Ledecka gave a time of 1:30.17 min. She was 0.21 seconds ahead of Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel (+0.21), and Cornelia Huetter (+0.42) from Austria. For the 29-year-old Cornelia Huetter, this is the third consecutive podium in the World Cup.
“The last time I was competing here I crashed in the net”, said Ester Ledecka while still sitting on the leader’s seat at the bottom of the hill. “But I ended up first this time… it’s a better feeling to come in the finish in one piece than crash in the net! I also had a lot of fatigue, for sure. In the last training, I improved because I finished 14th and 15th, the worst training I’ve ever had. I didn’t get into today with many good feelings but with such beautiful weather and such a course it was difficult to not have fun”, added she.
Surprisingly, fourth place was taken by Priska Nufer, who came down with the 30th starting number and finished 0.81 sec behind the winner and performed best of the home team. The Austrian Miriam Puchner finished fifth in 0.98 sec, and from the sixth Joana Hahlen onwards the differences jumped to more than a second. The great hope of the hosts – the Olympic champion from Beijing in downhill – Corinne Suter, remained tenth today 1.22 sec behind Ester Ledecka.
Mikaela Shiffrin leads the overall standings for the Women’s Alpine Skiing World Cup with 1,026 points. Second is the Slovak Petra Vlhova, who today took 20th place and is only 13 points behind the American. The third is the Italian Sofia Goggia with 791 points, five ahead of her compatriot Federica Brignone.
Sofia Goggia, who finished 12th today, is the leader in the “downhill” discipline with 422 points. Corinne Suter is second with 357, ahead of Austria’s Ramona Siebenhofer with 302. With her victory, Ester Ledecka climbed to seventh place with 223 points.
Another women’s World Cup descent will take place in Crane-Montana on Sunday.
Women’s world cup downhill in Crans-Montana:
1. Ledecka climbed (Czech Republic) – 1:30.17 min
2. Ragnhild Mowinckel (Norway) – 1:30.38 min
3. Cornelia Huetter (Austria) – 1:30.59 min