Vienna : Federica Brignone won a World Cup super-G on Saturday for the 2020 overall champion’s first victory this season in a race that Mikaela Shiffrin skipped.
Brignone mastered a course shortened because of heavy overnight snowfall and triumphed after her Italian teammate Sofia Goggia skied faster but went out following a nasty crash.
Goggia, the downhill standings leader, had just passed a checkpoint halfway through her wild run down the Karl Schranz course and led Brignone by 0.44 seconds when her left ski seemed to hit a patch of soft snow.
She tried to regain balance but fell sideways with her right ski high up in the air and slid off the course.
Brignone, sitting in the leader’s chair in the finish area after her near-flawless run, buried her face in both hands when she witnessed Goggia’s crash on a monitor, but then saw how her teammate got up immediately and skied down to the finish.
With the start of the world championships in France just over three weeks away, Goggia seemed unhurt.
Last month, the Olympic downhill champion broke two bones in her left hand at a race in St. Moritz but returned the next day to win a downhill at the Swiss resort.
Two years ago, Goggia had to sit out her home world championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo after picking up a knee injury in an out-of-competition accident.
