In an event where winning and losing is determined by fractions of a second, Italian skier Sofia Goggia and American Breezy Johnson have been remarkably consistent in the last 365 days.
On Saturday in Val d’Isere, France, Goggia won her seventh consecutive World Cup downhill, while Johnson finished second for a third straight race. Austrian Mirjam Puchner rounded out the podium. (A video highlight is embedded above.)
While Goggia has won every downhill she has entered since the last Val d’Isere World Cup in December 2020, the Bergamo resident did miss two World Cup downhills last season - plus the 2021 World Championships - after she fractured a bone in her right knee.
Johnson, who has dealt with her own fair share of injuries, has finished in the top-five of every World Cup downhill she has finished since February 2020.
Goggia and Johnson’s continued success hasn’t left much space on the podium for the rest of the field. Since the start of the 2020-21 World Cup season, a total of 30 downhill podium spots have been filled by the same 10 women. Goggia owns the most podium finishes (8), followed by Johnson (7) and Switzerland’s Corinne Suter (5).
| World Cup Downhills | Winner | Second Place | Third Place |
| Val d’Isere (December 18, 2020) | Corinne Suter won by 0.11 seconds | Sofia Goggia | Breezy Johnson |
| Val d’Isere (December 19, 2020) | Goggia won by 0.24 seconds | Corinne Suter | Breezy Johnson |
| St. Anton (January 9, 2021) | Goggia won by 0.96 seconds | Tamara Tippler | Breezy Johnson |
| Crans Montana (January 22, 2021) | Goggia won by 0.20 seconds | Ester Ledecka | Breezy Johnson |
| Crans Montana (January 23, 2021) | Goggia won by 0.27 seconds | Lara Gut-Behrami | Elena Curtoni |
| Val di Fassa (February 26, 2021) | Gut-Behrami won (Goggia was injured) | Ramona Siebenhofer | Corinne Suter |
| Val di Fassa (February 27, 2021) | Gut-Behrami won (Goggia was injured) | Corinne Suter | Kira Weidle |
| Lake Louise (December 3, 2021) | Goggia won by 1.47 seconds | Breezy Johnson | Mirjam Puchner |
| Lake Louise (December 4, 2021) | Goggia won by 0.84 seconds | Breezy Johnson | Corinne Suter |
| Val d’Isere (December 18, 2021) | Goggia won by 0.27 seconds | Breezy Johnson | Mirjam Puchner |
With her third straight second-place result on Saturday, Johnson clinched a provisional spot on the 2022 U.S. Olympic team. In Beijing, Johnson - a resident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming - could become just the second American woman to win Olympic downhill gold (Lindsey Vonn was the first), while Goggia will be aiming to become just the second skier to defend an Olympic downhill title.
The Val d’Isere World Cup continues on Sunday with a super-G, in which Mikaela Shiffrin is a late entry.
“I was not at all planning on going to Val d’Isere but we decided just last night to give it a go in the Super G… so here goes somethin’!” Shiffrin wrote on Instagram on Thursday.
ALSO FROM ON HER TURF: Goggia wins Val d’Isere super-G, Shiffrin and Johnson ski into top-10
Follow Alex Azzi on Twitter @AlexAzziNBC
