The world champion led a Swiss double victory in the absence of Mikaela Shiffrin and celebrated her first World Cup downhill victory with a lead of 0.22 seconds over Joana Hählen.
Hütter confirmed her strong form in the second downhill run of the season following finishing fourth in St. Moritz last weekend and narrowly missing out on the top three. On the hard and bumpy slope in Val d’Isere, the 31-year-old ended the one-year dry spell for the red-white-red downhill skiers, who last finished in Lake Louise at the beginning of December 2022 with places two (Nina Ortlieb) and three (Hütter). had made it to the podium.
“That was an adrenaline rush,” said Hütter. “From yesterday to today we strategized with the material and it worked out really well. The last little thing as to why it didn’t make it to the top was a few small mistakes on my part. But today everyone made mistakes because everyone was full of energy limit,” she explained in the ORF interview. Hütter left behind the Italian Sofia Goggia (4th) and the Slovenian Ilka Stuhec (5th), who dominated the downhill World Cup last year. Hählen was only missing two hundredths, which she had left behind in the finish.
Thanks to a strong ride in the lower section, Flury took her second World Cup victory, the first in the downhill. “Today it was a little faster and more difficult, harder, a little restless. I tried to stay clean on the skis and pull,” said the Swiss, who was second in the only training session on Friday. She celebrated her only previous World Cup victory six years ago in the Super-G.
In addition to the Swiss with five runners in the top eleven, the Austrians also achieved a good result as a team. The second best ÖSV rider was Ariane Rädler, who finished seventh, 0.92 seconds behind, achieving her best World Cup result in almost two years. Mirjam Puchner ended up in tenth place (+1.03 seconds) following a mistake in the lower section.
US star Shiffrin was not at the start. The overall World Cup winner and winner in St. Moritz skipped the downhill and will take part in the Super-G on Sunday (11 a.m./live ORF 1).
