Italy’s Sofia Goggia won a remarkable silver medal in the women’s downhill at the Winter Olympics in Beijing just three weeks after partially tearing a knee ligament in a crash in Cortina.
The reigning Olympic champion revealed she battled through the pain barrier to take second place, 0.16 seconds behind gold medallist Corinne Suter of Switzerland, with Goggia’s compatriot Nadia Delgado taking bronze.
“The path to come here after the crash in Cortina was tough, but I had no room for doubts,” said Goggia. “I really did believe that I could make it, and this is why I did it.”
Goggia established an early lead and was only eclipsed by Suter, despite revealing she was far from fully fit after damaging her anterior cruciate ligament last month. American Mikaela Shiffrin’s difficult Beijing Olympics continued as she finished 18th.
“This has been really tough on me mentally,” said Goggia. “I took painkillers before the race. It was really painful at the top of the course, but it was for less than a second.
“I would have loved to have had 80 per cent of my strength. Of course it is getting better every day, but I cannot bend the knee and I can barely do a squad. But skiing in the last days was pretty much OK.”
