LAKE LOUISE, Alberta (Reuters) -Italy’s Sofia Goggia won the opening Alpine World Cup women’s super-G on Sunday to complete a Lake Louise hat-trick, becoming the first woman since Lindsey Vonn in 2015 to sweep all three races at the Canadian resort.
Goggia, who scored dominating downhill wins on Friday and Saturday, had a much tighter result in the super-G, clocking one minute 18.28 seconds down a sun-kissed layout and crossing just 0.11 ahead of Swiss world champion Lara Gut-Behrami.
Austria’s Mirjam Puchner, third in the opening downhill, again completed the podium ahead of team mate Tamara Tippler.
American double Olympic gold medallist and three-times overall World Cup winner Mikaela Shiffrin bounced back from disappointing 26th and 38th place results in the downhill to finish sixth.
“I’m really happy today, this is the best victory for sure of these three days,” said Goggia, the reigning Olympic downhill champion. “I just said to myself push and to do the lines I had seen in the inspection and create speed in the last part of the pitch.
“When I saw the green light today it was an explosion in my heart because I did really believe I could do this but until you see the green light you never know.
“Today was one of my best victories ever because I made a change from the downhill to the super-G.”
SPEED QUEEN
The victories mark Goggia out as the World Cup’s undisputed speed queen.
Last year she opened her downhill campaign with a second place in Val d’Isere and then reeled off four consecutive victories before suffering a knee injury in January that cut short her season.
The 29-year-old picked up where she left off prior to her injury, demolishing the field in the two Lake Louise downhills — taking the first on Friday by a whopping 1.47 seconds and another on Saturday by a 0.84-second margin, extending her streak to six wins.
Goggia’s 14th career victory capped a weekend of domination not seen since Vonn ruled over Lake Louise by completing the hat-trick three times in 2015, 2012 and 2011.
Germany’s Katja Seizinger also swept all three races in the 1997-98 season.
After picking up two wins and a pair of second-place finishes in the opening four technical races of the season, Shiffrin had been unable to find any form in the speed events until Sunday, earning valuable points in her bid for a fourth overall crown.
Shiffrin tops the overall standings with 405 points, followed by Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova on 340 and Goggia third on 315.
“I felt good and it is really nice to know that I still have some connection with the super-G skis after no training,” said Shiffrin. “It is really positive to end the weekend like this.
“The last days were a bit disappointing but I really couldn’t expect more. I had to just swallow my pride a bit, this is where I am and it’s a little frustrating.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Lake Louise. Editing by Clare Fallon)
