Only two hundredths of a second separated Cornelia Hütter from her first victory in the Ski World Cup this season. The Styrian only had to admit defeat to Corinne Suter from Switzerland in the first Super-G of the alpine winter in Lake Louise. Third place was taken by Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel (+0.16) on Sunday, who in turn pushed Mirjam Puchner (+0.26) down to fourth place. Sofia Goggia missed the Lake Louise hat-trick and had to settle for fifth place.
In the third race this weekend, one of the strong ÖSV speed teams was on the podium. The third best Austrian following 39 runners was Ramona Siebenhofer, who felt much more comfortable than in her downhill runs, as seventh (+0.51). Nina Ortlieb, who was second in the downhill on Saturday, was off the course following just a few seconds due to a misjudgment. The Vorarlberger was too direct and did not score a goal. Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami also retired following taking too much risk.
After third place on Friday in the first descent – also only two hundredths behind Suter – Hütter did not start on Saturday due to health problems. After getting up, she noticed a headache and impaired vision. “It’s all a little blurry. If I go down at 140 and don’t see really sharply, it becomes dangerous,” she explained her decision. “I’ve been on the net often enough. If it really doesn’t work, or if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t make any sense.”
The complaints might be related to the concussion she suffered in Crans-Montana in February 2022. She had also suffered a whiplash injury at the time.
On Sunday she felt strong once more and showed a formidable ride, especially in the lower part of the course. “At the Fall-Away entrance I thought I held him too much, that wasn’t good. Then I thought to myself, you have to risk it below and make amends for it,” said Hütter in the ORF interview. “I think I picked up a lot of speed there. Then the goals came really quickly.”
Faster on top, Suter celebrated her fifth World Cup win and second in a Super-G. Hütter did not quarrel with their minimal deficit. “I believe that everything in life comes back. And I believe that the two hundredths will come back at some point,” emphasized the Styrian.
Nicole Schmidhofer finished 14th, her best result since February 2020 in Crans-Montana. Even before her serious knee injury, she had finished seventh in the downhill. Stephanie Venier came in 16th, Tamara Tippler was 22nd on her first outing this season. Ariane Rädler in 25th and Nadine Fest in 27th also scored points.