'Instinct never lies': Goggia wins season's first speed race

Speed racing is back, and so is Sofia Goggia (ITA).

In the first super-G race of the 2023/24 season after seven technical contests to open the campaign, the Italian star dominated in St. Moritz on Friday to outclass her rivals by nearly a second.

Racing in lightly falling snow and flat light, Goggia's winning run was everything we have come to expect during her stellar career: aggressive, slightly wild, and very fast.

She crossed the line in 1 minute, 16.63 seconds, 0.95 seconds ahead of runner-up Cornelia Huetter (AUT), with Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) over a second off the winning time in third.

"I'm a bit surprised," Goggia admitted after she won her first super-G race since December 2021 with an early start bib of No.7.

"Coming down with the first numbers in St. Moritz is never easy and you don't have a lot of references. When I saw I was ahead with 95 hundredths, I said, 'I don't think it's going to last.'"

But it did — easily — despite her having to adjust to the longer skis after an impressive North American swing during which Goggia showed some of the best technical form of her career, with three top-10 finishes in giant slalom.

"The feelings that I had while I was coming down, I was really sometimes too long in every turn," Goggia said of her return to speed skiing on Friday.

"I think it was tricky, as (is) every super-G here in St. Moritz, but I pushed it in the points in which I could create speed.

"The difference that I made, it was starting from a bit of a mistake because I wasn't in the line. And I was pushing my own line in my improvisation."

Those instincts led her to her 23rd World Cup victory, drawing her level with teammate Federica Brignone (ITA) for the most all-time among Italian women, but that's not always the path Goggia wants to take.

"Sometimes, not super every time," she cautioned. "But instinct never lies."

Austrian speed specialist Huetter, meanwhile, was skiing in her first World Cup race since March and was delighted to finish second after taking the early lead with bib No.6.

"All in all I think it's the perfect start to the season," she said. "I was really nervous because we waited so long to start the season in the speed races."

"I tried to focus myself to push everything to the limit. I think a few parts were really good, nice solid skiing (but also) not so good turns."

Among the later starters of the pre-race favourites with bib No.14, Gut-Behrami was in touch with Goggia through the first two splits but couldn't find enough speed on the middle-lower section to challenge for the victory.

The defending super-G crystal globe winner held on to finish third, pushing Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) down to fourth.

"I'm not feeling so great still on the speed skis, I need a few more runs to get used to it," said Gut-Behrami, who already has three podiums, including two victories, in giant slalom this season.

"I'm still doing GS turns instead of going straight, so I'm pretty happy that it turned out like that," she said. "I know I still have a few things to improve, but I'm quite confident that it will come."

With one speed race under her belt, Gut-Behrami should be in better form for Saturday's downhill and Sunday's second super-G — but so should Goggia.

The Italian will start as favourite for the weekend treble and won't rest on her laurels after Friday's triumph.

"Good race, good victory, let's focus on the downhill tomorrow," Goggia said.

Click here for the full results from Friday's race.