MERIBEL, — Swiss skier Jasmine Flury won gold in the women’s downhill at the world championships Saturday on a rough day for Sofia Goggia and most other pre-race favorites.
Flury edged Austrian skier Nina Ortlieb by 0.04 seconds for her first career medal at major championships.
Swiss teammate Corinne Suter came 0.12 behind to take bronze. Suter was the defending champion and won Olympic gold a year ago.
“Unreal, unreal, I don’t know. It feels unreal, like crazy. I’m just really happy,” said Flury, who has won one World Cup race in her career - a super-G in her native Switzerland more than five yeas ago - but had no previous top-10 result from 10 starts at worlds and Olympics.
“It’s just amazing. Also, with Corinne on the podium … now, it’s unbelievable.”
Suter had feared she would miss the worlds after a nasty crash in a downhill in Italy last month.
PHOTOS: Swiss skier Flury takes downhill gold as favorites falter
“I was very lucky my body was OK but I can’t remember the whole crash. The first thought was if I could race at world champs. I didn’t know,” Suter said.
“It’s one of the most special medals for me, because the last days were so difficult for me. I didn’t know if I was able to ski fast. I had many, many doubts.”
Goggia, widely regarded the top gold contender after winning four of the six World Cup downhills this seasons, was disqualified after the Italian skied through a gate.
Like Suter, Ortlieb crashed in a downhill in Italy last month suffering a concussion. The Austrian sat out the 2021-22 season with a knee injury.
“Such a reward for all the hard work,” Ortlieb said about her medal. “I knew it was not bad, but it was also not perfect. But sometimes it feels like not perfect, but you are anyway fast.”
Ortlieb’s grandfather is from Strasbourg and her father, Patrick Ortlieb, won the 1992 Olympic downhill in Val d’Isere.
“We have a special relationship (with France), and my grandpa was a really great chef so we always enjoyed a lot of French cuisine,” said the 26-year-old Ortlieb, adding she spent “holidays in France in autumn.”
Fellow Austrians Cornelia Huetter, who bronze in Wednesday’s super-G, and Mirjam Puchner shared fourth place, 0.25 off the lead.
Mikaela Shiffrin sat out the race, three days after winning silver in super-G. The American was expected back at the worlds for the giant slalom on Thursday.
There were a few sparse clouds when the race started, then it cleared up and the sun started beaming down on the Roc de Fer course, which has only one brief section in the shade.
The sunshine seemed to weaken the course and slowed racers who started after the first 10, with most of them already a few tenths off the lead at the second split about 30 seconds into their run.
Flury’s biggest career triumph followed a week of illness.
“Only at the second training (Thursday) I felt better, I was OK. And on this snow, my skis work really well and today I managed to do a super run, incredible,” she said.
“When I won my first World Cup race, I was so surprised I couldn’t really enjoy it. But this time I will really enjoy it.”
Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion from Italy, was 0.15 behind Flury but made up time in the more turny second half of the Roc de Fer course.
She slightly lost balance on her outside right ski, then went with her left ski through a gate. She narrowly avoided falling and finished her run in third position, but was disqualified.
“This was really a strange behavior from my skis. It took me inside and I didn’t expect it,” Goggia said.
“I’m more than disappointed, I am sorrowful. Because no one will ever give me the chance to get a medal in these world championships. This hurts inside and it’s painful.”
Goggia had led two of the three trainings this week, most notably Friday, when she was nearly a half second faster than any other racer.
The Italian ski team had won both women’s races at the worlds, with Federica Brignone taking gold in the combined and Marta Bassino winning the super-G, but were hit by the passing of former teammate Elena Fanchini, who died Wednesday at the age of 37 from a tumor.
“It’s been an emotional week,” said Elena Curtoni, the best Italian finisher in 13th.
There was a minute of silence for Fanchini before the winners ceremony after Saturday’s race.
Other skiers tipped as gold candidates finished well behind.
Two-time world champion Ilka Stuhec placed sixth, just ahead of Austria’s Stephanie Venier in seventh after leading one of the trainings this week.
Lara Gut-Behrami, the 2016 overall World Cup champion who has 11 medals from major events, was ninth. Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel trailed by more eight-tenths in 10th.
Top American downhiller Breezy Johnson was among the fastest starters but went down and slid off the course halfway through her run. She got up and skied down unhurt.
“What today proves is that you have to go out and you have to execute and you have to finish it, and today I didn’t,” Johnson said.
“People see what I did, or what Mikaela did, and it’s like: ‘you lose races.’ No, you have to go out and win them, every day. And you have to win from the top all the way to the bottom, day in and day out, That’s what makes it hard.”
The men’s downhill at the worlds is scheduled for Sunday.
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