There is an end to everything, and so is Sofia Gogia’s triumphant journey: the Italian player finished her successful seven downhill wins in the safety net at 10.56am on Saturday. The Olympic champion’s outdoor ski slipped when pressed on the Kälberloch piste in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, but the 29 – year – old was unharmed. Oh yeah: Of course Sofia Gogia was pretty fast in the meantime before her retirement (53.14).
So the path to a Swiss was clear: Laura Good-Behrami, the silver medalist at the 2007 Junior World Championships in Pongau, set the best time in 1: 45.78 minutes, ahead of Nicole Schmidtfer, behind Tina Veerar. If the 30-year-old woman had not screwed up the finishing jump, she would have been two-tenths faster in a second – but Kokia would not have surpassed her.
Goes well with the chances of success of the sub-Austrians. Mirzam Buchner, who has excelled so far this season, made massive mistakes on the selected track and finished 17th, 1.83 seconds behind.
Christine Scheyer, the last Austrian champion in Zauchensee in 2017, ran 1.26 seconds more in a combination of motivation and uncertainty than Laura Good-Behrami (10th).
