Flury in dreamworld as she shocks field by snatching downhill gold

A tearful Jasmine Flury defied predictions, pre-race form and the big names of women’s speed skiing to grab a dramatic women’s downhill World Championship gold in Courchevel Meribel.

The 29-year-old, who has never won a single major downhill race of any sort in her nine years on Tour, picked the perfect moment to produce the performance of a lifetime.

While red-hot Italian favourite Sofia Goggia made a major error in the high-speed Roc de Fer close out, straddling a gate to be disqualified, the unheralded Flury was in total control throughout.

And the shocks did not stop with the smooth, clean and error-free Swiss skier. Finishing just four-hundredths of a second behind her, Nina Ortlieb claimed silver 27 years after her father, Patrick Ortlieb won world championship downhill gold on French snow.

Like Flury, Ortlieb has never won a downhill on the World Cup circuit before, but that did not stop her, in her first ever world championship start, pushing the 2021 world and 2022 Olympic downhill champion, Corinne Suter, into third.

Second out of the gate – three places before Ortlieb – Flury found a balance between aggression and soft, subtle skiing that eluded almost everyone else. One by one big names from 2017 and 2019 downhill world champion Ilka Stuhec to 2018 Olympic downhill silver medallist Ragnhild Mowinckel and eight-time world championship medallist Lara Gut-Behrami found themselves the wrong side of the clock.

Mowinckel, 11th out of the gate, was one of those to suggest that the snow conditions changed significantly in the warming conditions making it difficult for the later starters, particularly on the long, gliding top section.

None of that mattered to Flury, even if she was having trouble comprehending the magnitude of her achievement.

“I really don’t know what to say, I still can’t believe it. It’s just amazing,” a tearful Flury said.  She has finished 10th or lower in all but one of her six World Cup downhill races this season.

“Unbelievable, I still don’t get it. It feels unreal, crazy,” she added. “I don’t know, it still feels like a dream. I don’t know what is happening and with Corinne (Suter) on the podium, I don’t know, more than a dream has come true.”

Ortlieb was equally in dreamworld. The Austrian only returned to the World Cup tour in December last year after spending 680 days on the sidelines, recovering from severe injury. But now she has a taste of success on the biggest stage of all, the 26-year-old fancies going one better and equalling her dad’s record next time.

“I have more world championships to come, maybe one day I can also bring home a gold,” Ortlieb said with a laugh, before reflecting just how far she has come from the long days of rehab.

“Such a reward for all the hard work.”

Bronze medallist Suter knows a little of how Ortlieb feels. Just a few weeks ago the Swiss No.1 downhiller crashed out in Cortina D’Ampezzo throwing her participation in these Championships into doubt.

“It was anything else but easy for me. The last weeks I started thinking and thinking. Also today I wasn’t sure if I could do it but my coach said to me today, ‘Corinne you are the only one who knows how to ski’. I just tried to do my best,” Suter said.

Super-G bronze medallist Cornelia Huetter narrowly missed out on a second medal, finishing in fourth. But it was left to Goggia to sum up the agony of all those big beasts who missed out.

“More than disappointed, I am sorrowful because no one will ever give me the chance to achieve a medal in this championship. This hurts inside and it’s painful,” the world No.1 ranked downhiller said.

“This doesn’t change my beautiful career and the skier I am. I will try next time.”

The parallel slalom now takes over in Courchevel Meribel, with first the mixed team parallel on 14 February and then the women’s parallel a day later.