Austria's Huetter wins women's World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek
32-year-old is the reigning World Cup downhill crystal globe winner
Cornelia Huetter of Austria navigated the tricky and steep terrain Saturday to win the first-ever women's World Cup downhill held on the Birds of Prey course.
Huetter finished in 1 minute, 32.38 seconds to hold off Italian ski racer Sofia Goggia by 0.16 seconds. Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland wound up third.
Reaching speeds near 79 mph (126.94 kph), Huetter charged through a course filled with bumps, technical turns and steep sections. Huetter, the reigning World Cup downhill champion, stuck to her line — and it proved to be the swiftest path to the finish.
First, though, it took getting over some nerves.
"At the first inspection, I was like, `Are you (freaking) kidding me? It's so deep. What the hell am I doing here?"' Huetter cracked. "I've never skied that steep before. All in all, it was amazing."
Goggia made a successful return to racing with a runner-up performance. Her season ended last February when she broke her right leg while training for the giant slalom. Goggia was leading the downhill standings at the time, only to see Huetter go on to capture the discipline title on the last day.
"This summer, I was really close to quit," Goggia said. "It would've been so perfect to win today. But I wasn't so perfect in the bottom. I'm really happy with my comeback. I had a good race, but I think I skied 80% of my potential."
WATCH | Huetter races to World Cup win:
The top American was Lauren Macuga, who was fourth and 0.52 seconds behind Huetter's winning time.
"I kept looking at the scoreboard and I'm like, `Wow, my name is up there,"' said the 22-year-old Macuga, who turned in her best World Cup finish. "I knew I could ski this well. It's just a matter of putting it out there. It's such a rewarding feeling to come down and know I was able to accomplish that."
All week long, the racers have been getting up to speed with the new downhill course. The men have been running the Birds of Prey downhill on the World Cup circuit for decades. But the women really haven't raced a full-length downhill. They did step on part of the terrain for a rescheduled super-G in 2011 as Lindsey Vonn took the win.
Vonn eyes Olympics
Lindsey Vonn, who next week will make her highly-anticipated return to the World Cup circuit, said on Saturday she hopes her comeback gets her to the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Vonn tested out the Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek, Colorado as a forerunner ahead of the first ever women's World Cup downhill event on the formidable track and later stated the goal behind her decision to return to racing.
"I've tried to keep everything in perspective and not set goals too high but ultimately, if I can make it to Cortina, that would be my goal," said Vonn, who has 82 World Cup wins and counts one gold among her three Olympic medals.
The 40-year-old American had retired in February 2019 citing the physical toll the sport had taken on her body but, following partial knee replacement surgery in April, announced last month she was making a comeback.
Vonn raced last weekend in the lower-level FIS Fall Festival and next week in St Moritz, Switzerland she will return to the World Cup circuit for the first time in nearly six years.
"I have no pain and no swelling and I just started down this adventure and I thought let's give it a try," Vonn said when asked why she decided to return to the sport.
"And here I am, only a few months later, forerunning my first World Cup and it feels so amazing to be back.
"I can't tell you how big of a difference it makes to be able to ski without pain, it's a completely new world for me and I haven't felt this good in 15 years so I'm excited to be back."
At Beaver Creek, Vonn looked comfortable on the Birds of Prey track but how she fared against the rest of the skiers was unknown as only competitors have official times.
