Canadians miss medals in women's downhill, Goggia beaten in return to Olympic podium

Standing on the Olympic podium, Sofia Goggia wasn't able to defend her gold medal from PyeongChang 2018, but had beaten the odds to even start the downhill in Yanqing.

To get to the start hut, she had to race through injury rehab, and persevere through the pain to give her a chance at a medal.

After sustaining an injury in January in the super-G at Cortina D'Ampezzo, the Italian superstar looked to be out of Olympic contention. That is, until returning to racing on Tuesday to win the silver medal in the downhill.

"I found an incredible strength inside of myself, and I was travelling by a sort of light. I'm glad I gave everything to be here today, I'm glad and grateful that I could achieve another medal, and I'm happy with myself," Goggia said after her run.

"I knew I needed to make enormous progress. I was almost afraid just to free ski. Afraid to trust my leg. Afraid to trust myself again. My knee still didn't feel well," Goggia said, explaining that everything got much worse three gates into her initial practice session, when she fell and slid into the safety netting.

"A huge blow, psychologically. I got up. My whole leg was shaking. I thought I made the situation worse. Turned out not," Goggia said. "When I got up, I told (coach Gianluca Rulfi) `I don't know if I can do this."'

The 2018 Olympic champion did not defend her gold medal, however, as Switzerland's Corinne Suter grabbed top spot in the first portion of the race.

Suter, the 2020 World Cup Crystal Globe champion in downhill, skied past Goggia's time, beating the Italian by 0.16 seconds to win her first Olympic medal, to go along with 18 World Cup medals.

Italy completed their brace on the podium with Nadia Delago skiing to bronze, as the 24-year-old captured her first Olympic medal before ever reaching the podium on the World Cup.

"It's my biggest dream in my life, so today I don't know what to say," Suter said. "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."

Canadians fall shy of podium

Canada's Marie-Michele Gagnon had a smooth run, but a small bobble at the top of the Haito Bowl pushed her off the pace before crossing the line 1.58 seconds back and in third place tied with Austria's Mirjam Puchner. By the race's end, Gagnon and Puchner had been pushed to eighth place. 

For Gagnon, 32, it's a personal best Olympic result. After missing PyeongChang 2018 due to injury, and skiing through shoulder discomfort at Sochi 2014, the native of Lac-Etchemin, Que., returned to the Olympic stage as a speed skier and beat her previous best of ninth in the slalom set in Sochi.

The conditions were not easy for athletes, coaches and race officials at Tuesday's race. Winds delayed the start time by 30 minutes, and pre-race reports had the temperature hovering around -20 Celsius, some of the coldest conditions racers had handled this season.

With the women's downhill in the books, Olympic ski racing continues at Beijing 2022 with the women's alpine combined at 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday and the mixed-team event at 10:00 p.m. ET on Friday, streaming live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website.