Sofia Goggia comfortably won a World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, one year before the Italian bids for home Olympic gold at the same venue.
Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, prevailed by 42 hundredths of a second over Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie.
Another Italian, Federica Brignone, was third.
Jackie Wiles led the American contingent in seventh, followed by last weekend’s super-G winner Lauren Macuga (16th) and comebacking Lindsey Vonn (20th).
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Vonn, who owns a record 12 World Cup wins at Cortina, raced two days after falling in a training run.
She said Thursday she had “a sore bum” and a broken boot, according to The Associated Press. Vonn retired in 2019 due to the toll ski racing injuries had taken on her body, then returned this season after partial right knee replacement surgery in April.
“I’m happy that I got that (fall on Thursday) out of the way, and I’m healthy,” she said Saturday. “My body can sustain a lot. I’m not like I was when I retired. I can take a hit.”
Vonn previously finished 14th, sixth and fourth in the first three World Cup races of her return from a five-year retirement at age 40.
In Saturday’s race, Vonn was eighth-fastest at the last intermediate split before she said she made “quite a few mistakes” at the bottom of the course.
“I was on pace to be another top-five result, and I have to be really happy with that,” she said. “I know everyone wants me to get right back on the podium, but it has been six years. This is the fastest course with the most terrain that I’ve skied. So I’m getting used to it. I’m still getting my downhill legs.”
Goggia, 32, has cycled between significant injuries and downhill dominance the last several years.
Back in August, she thought she’d have to quit ski racing. She struggled coming back from fracturing her right tibia and tibial malleolus in her foot and ankle in a giant slalom training crash last February.
Then she finished second, first and third in her first three races back in December. She rebounded from two DNFs last weekend for her fourth career Cortina downhill victory on Saturday.
“For us, Italians, it’s always a special place here in Cortina,” Goggia said. “Today, I felt like I had my heart in my throat. I was really emotional at the start gate.
“Cortina is just not a downhill or a race, it means the world to me.”
A super-G is scheduled in Cortina on Sunday.
Italy did not win an Alpine skiing medal at the two previous Winter Games it hosted in 1956 (Cortina) and 2006 (Torino).
NBC Sports’ Andy Dougherty contributed to this report.
