St. MAURITZ, Switzerland (AP) — Italian skier Sofia Goggia gave a thumbs-up with her right hand after dominating her fourth women’s World Cup downhill of the season on Saturday.
His left hand could barely move.
Goggia won the race in impressive style, leading runner-up Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia by 0.43 seconds, a day after breaking two fingers when she hit the gate, but still finished second at the Corviglia track.
After the accident on Friday, the two-time Olympic medalist went to Milan for surgery. The Italian ski team said a metal rod and screws were placed inside his arm to stabilize it, and the hand was wrapped in a plaster cast.
Still, Goggia returned to the Swiss resort for a second landing.
With his left arm bandaged and his glove attached to his ski pole with yellow glue, Goggia was the ninth starter, visibly unimpaired by the injury.
“When I realized today that I can do it, I don’t think there is a girl who is (as) happy as I was at the starting gate today. It was not guaranteed that I could start today,” Goggia said, adding that the Italian team was even considering leaving him out of the starting line-up for Saturday’s race.
“I said. “Are you crazy? You are crazy. I’m not giving up like this,” Goggia said.
Running under blue skies and sunshine, in contrast to Friday’s race in snowy and foggy conditions, Goggia handled the 2.5km course in his usual daring style, not shying away from bumpy turns and jumping higher and further than his rivals.
Goggia finished 0.52 seconds ahead of then-leading German Kira Weidl and waved and kissed the crowd.
Weidl was later pipped to third by Stueck, who earned his first podium finish in nearly four years. The Slovenian won this way in 2017.
Elena Curtoni, who won Friday’s race, finished 1.16 seconds back in eighth.
Goggia’s third win of the season and 20th overall was briefly threatened by Michaela Shiffrin.
From lap 21, the overall World Cup leader was several hundredths faster than Goggia in the first two sections, but Shiffrin took fewer risks than the Italian for the rest of his run and finished 0.61s back in fourth.
“I’m really happy with how the last two days went down. It was so fun, smooth and flowy,” said Shiffrin, who improved two places to Friday’s result, one place behind American teammate Breezy Johnson.
Johnson finished nearly two seconds behind Goggia in the top 20 on Saturday.
Shiffrin was followed by three Austrian racers: Cornelia Hüter, Nina Ortlieb and Mirjam Puchner.
Shiffrin leads the overall standings with 475 points, 50 ahead of Goggia and 109 ahead of Wendy Holden. The Swiss skier finished 32nd and failed to earn any World Cup points.
“On the one hand, I try not to count points all the time, but it’s always in the back of my mind,” said Shiffrin, who won his fourth overall title last season.
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