Ilka Stuhec slays Cortina d'Ampezzo super-G

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In the final super-G prior to the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships set for St. Moritz, Ilka Stuhec secured the first victory of her career in the discipline under blue skies at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. A straighter than usual course set benefited her as well as Italian Sofia Goggia, who finished second, and Anna Veith, who surprised herself on her comeback journey to score her first podium finish since the 2015 World Cup Finals giant slalom.

Stuhec selected bib 1 despite having the choice of three numbers in the draw the previous evening and had to watch every challenger come down and threaten her victory.

"I feel great," said Stuhec. "It was a great course and felt really, really good to ski so I'm definitely happy with the outcome. It was definitely stressful to stand here and watch everyone coming down, but it's part of the game. At the end, we need to ski fast and show our best no matter what course is set."

Goggia, meanwhile, was able to hit the reset button on her super-G season after two previous disappointing performances, bit her run was not without a mishap where she nearly lost her line on the lower half of the track.

"It was not that easy coming from two DNFs in the last two super-Gs, and I was happy when I crossed the finish line and saw I made another podium. It was really OK, even though my skiing performance was not pushing at 100 percent, but I think I skied from 75 to 80 percent of what I can do."

The surprise story of the day, of course, was Veith's third-place finish. Although she has posted fast splits in previous races, she has struggled to make it to the finish line.

"It's pretty emotional. When I came to the finish, I didn't expect that because I was seven-tenths behind and I didn't feel that it was that good of a run because it was very fast. I was fighting for a good position, and it wasn't so easy. Now, I'm pretty happy that all the work has paid off now and I'm on the right way. It's been pretty hard because I know that everybody knows how my skiing was before my injury and I'm not at that point now because my body isn't like how it was before. It was tough the last weeks because it was always fighting against myself. And today, I just wanted to ski fast and nothing more and I'm pretty happy that it paid off," said Veith.

Lara Gut was sitting on a perfect season in super-G but failed to finish after hooking her arm on a gate and spinning off course. She had over a half-second lead on Stuhec's time when she skied out. Although she was a little banged up after contacting the panel, she later reported that she sustained no significant injuries and will rest up and prepare for World Championships instead of racing the city event in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the speed circuit and posted a head-turning fourth-place finish after matching Stuhec's split at the third interval. After skiing through the finish area with a smile on her face, she loudly proclaimed, "I can ski speed!" The result helped Shiffrin maintain an 80-point lead over Gut in the overall standings.

The ladies' tour next meets up with the men in Stockholm, Sweden, for a city event parallel slalom on Tuesday evening.

Full results from today's race are available here.