Lake Louise (Canada) (AFP) - Reigning World Cup downhill champion Sofia Goggia won the opening speed event of the 2022-23 season on Friday, edging Olympic gold medallist Corinne Suter in a downhill thriller at Lake Louise, Canada.
Italy's Goggia clocked 1min 47.81sec on the Lake Louise course where she completed a sweep of two downhills and a super-G last season.
She then watched as Switzerland's Suter came up just four-hundredths of a second behind her.
Austria's Cornelia Huetter completed the podium, starting 20th and threatening Goggia's lead before setting for third in 1:47.897 -- six-hundredths behind the winner.
The race was the first of three scheduled for the weekend in the Canadian Rockies, with another downhill set for Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.
They are the first women's speed races of the season after cancellations last month in Europe.
"I'm super-happy with the race today, with the result and the outcome, because my performance was not so good," Goggia said.
The speed queen won four of the first five downhills last season as she roared to the top of the standings.
That included a red-hot weekend at Lake Louise, where she launched her sweep with a 1.47-sec victory over American Breezy Johnson.
Although a super-G crash at Cortina nearly derailed her 2021-22 campaign, Goggia came back to take downhill silver behind Suter at the Beijing Winter Olympics and garner enough points to seal a third downhill crystal globe.
Goggia said she'd be looking to make a few improvements on Saturday in search of another, more dominant, win.
"I'm trying to improve tomorrow, to ski better because I wasn't so perfect, actually," she said, adding that the difference in her winning margin showed that "every year is a new season and every race has its own history."
Among other finishers, Lara Gut-Behrami, the reigning world and Olympic super-G gold medallist who won a giant-slalom at Killington, Vermont, last weekend, finished 18th, 1.87sec off the lead.
Johnson, who was runner-up to Goggia in both Lake Louise downhills last season before tearing a knee ligament and missing the Olympics, finished tied for 16th, 1.77sec adrift.
Last season's overall World Cup winner, American Mikaela Shiffrin, is skipping the Lake Louise races, preferring to focus this week on technical training ahead of a giant slalom and slalom in Sestriere next weekend.
Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic, who was third in downhill last season, is recovering from injury and isn't expected to race until January.
The race was briefly halted by a crash by Elisabeth Reisinger, but the Austrian was able to stand and after talking to medical staff gingerly skied off the course.
