'Winning is really fun': Stuhec back on top in 2nd Cortina downhill

Having endured over four "crazy" years since her last World Cup victory, Slovenia's Ilka Stuhec finally returned to the top of the podium in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Saturday.

The 2017 and 2019 downhill world champion finished ahead of Norway's Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (+0.26s) and Italy's Elena Curtoni (+0.34s) for her first World Cup win since claiming the downhill and super-G double in Val Gardena in December 2018.

"It's been many years, it hasn't been easy," said the 32-year-old Stuhec, who had contemplated retirement after suffering a series of knee injuries, including two torn ACLs.

"So many things happened in between that it's just crazy, actually. There were some moments when I thought, 'Why am I still doing this?'

"But I'm really happy that I kept going, that I trusted my inner feelings to fight on. And now I'm having fun again, and winning is really fun."

Strong winds forced the start gate to be moved below the Tofana Schuss, and Stuhec backed up Friday's second-place finish to master a sprint race nearly 30 seconds shorter.

She held her nerve after the two skiers before her — Austria's Nina Ortlieb and Italian pre-race favourite Sofia Goggia — both crashed out.

Friday's winner Goggia lost control of her right ski in flight three-quarters of the way down the course to continue her pattern of either winning or failing to finish in Cortina that now encompasses her last seven races in the Italian resort.

"It was really a mistake," said Goggia, who said she was uninjured. "It's fine, maybe something small but nothing major."

On a course of just over a minute, there was no room for errors even much smaller than the one Goggia made, but Stuhec couldn't say whether she had the perfect run or not.

"I don't know, at the moment I don't really care," she laughed.

As the top-seeded skiers after her failed to beat her time and Stuhec began to believe the victory was hers, Lie threatened to take it away with a stunning run with bib No. 30 on her own comeback from a devastating leg injury suffered in Val di Fassa nearly two years ago.

The Norwegian was ahead of Stuhec's pace on the top section and stayed in touch throughout the race, finishing on the podium for the second time in her World Cup career and the first time in downhill.

"Meraviglioso!" said a delighted Lie in Italian. "I also don't have any words actually. I'm really happy about being patient and trusting the process the whole time."

After crossing the line, Lie was mobbed in the finish area by teammate Ragnhild Mowinckel, even though she was pushed off the podium by Lie's performance.

Mowinckel had to settle for equal fourth with Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, one one-hundredth of a second behind third-placed Curtoni.

The Italian veteran, who won a sprint downhill in St. Moritz in December, again showed her affinity for the shortened format by finishing third.

"I knew what to do even though it was shorter, I knew (where) I had to be better," said Curtoni, who came eighth in Friday's full-length downhill.

"Yesterday I was having some mistakes in the bottom part. Today I was faster so I'm happy about my skiing."

The speed weekend in Cortina d'Ampezzo concludes on Sunday with a super-G at 11:30am local time.