Canada's Grenier part of 3-way tie for bronze as Shiffrin crashes at Cortina downhill
Austria's Stephanie Venier takes top spot for 2nd career World Cup victory
Stephanie Venier held her nerve to win a World Cup downhill after Mikaela Shiffrin and other skiers crashed on Friday on the course marked for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Shiffrin crashed into the safety nets after losing control while landing a jump on the upper portion of the course. She was helped off the course with her left boot raised off the snow.
Starting after Shiffrin and fellow former overall champion Federica Brignone went down, as well as Olympic champion Corinne Suter, Venier was able to deal with the challenging terrain on the Olympia delle Tofane course.
It is Grenier's fourth career World Cup podium finish, but first in downhill. She had previously won two golds and bronze in giant slalom.
"I still can't believe it," said Grenier. "I felt really good with my run today. The whole way down I was on the line I wanted but when I crossed the finish and saw third place I was shocked. There were no expectations coming into today and the team kept it pretty relaxed at the top as we were warming up. It can help sometimes when you just relax and go ski."
WATCH | Grenier reacts to downhill bronze:
The last Canadian woman to reach the podium in downhill was Larisa Yurkiw, who finished second in Cortina in 2016.
It was Venier's second career World Cup win after a victory in another downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, five years ago.
No women on the once dominant Austrian team had won a downhill since Nicole Schmidhofer in Lake Louise, Alta., in Dec. 2019.
"I saw all the crashes on the top. But I think I managed it, and it was a good run, and my technician did a really good job," Venier said. "My skis were really fast today."
WATCH | Italy's Sofia Goggia excited to race in Cortina:
Shiffrin's arms were flailing as she landed in a patch of soft snow. The American, who has a record 95 World Cup wins, then slammed into the net at high speed and rebounded back onto the snow.
The American is "pretty sore," her coach said a few hours later, but doesn't appear to have any ligament damage in her left knee. She won't race again this weekend, though, and it's unclear when she'll return.
"She's actually quite good," U.S. team coach Paul Kristofic told The Associated Press. "She's positive and in a certain way relieved. Because it could have been worse. But she's pretty sore, as you are for most speed crashes. But she was quite upbeat about things."
Brignone crashed shortly after the race resumed following a delay because of Shiffrin's fall. But Brignone got right up and proceeded to ski down. She was unhurt.
Suter tore her ACL and damaged her meniscus and is out for the season. Michelle Gisin, a two-time Olympic champion, hurt her right tibia and won't race again this weekend.
The race was held amid clear and sunny conditions but warm temperatures.
Shiffrin and Brignone are the fourth and fifth former overall World Cup champions to crash in the past two weeks following season-ending injuries to Alexis Pinturault, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Petra Vlhova.
In all, 12 of 52 starters didn't finish the race.
Another downhill is scheduled for Cortina on Saturday at 4:30 a.m. ET, followed by a super-G on Sunday at 4:30 a.m. ET. Live coverage of both events is available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
With files from CBC Sports and The Canadian Press
