MILAN, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Italian Winter Olympic ski champion Sofia Goggia will miss the opening events of the World Cup season but hopes to be back in action before Christmas after an injury, she said on Friday. Goggia broke the tibia in her right leg when she crashed in training for the giant slalom in February, ending her season at a time when she was leading the downhill World Cup standings.
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Goggia Aims for December Return Amidst Injury Struggles
If everything goes well, I would like to be back racing in mid-December at Beaver Creek Goggia, 31, said at the Italian Winter Sports Federation (FISI) media day in Milan. Goggia is a four-time winner of the overall downhill World Cup title and has won downhill gold at the 2018 PyeongChang winter Olympic and silver at the 2022 Beijing Games.
However, her career has been plagued by a succession of injuries. Emotionally, this time was very difficult, but I made every effort to recover. It would be intellectually dishonest to talk about goals now without even touching the snow she said.
Goggia added that she had no expectations for the season, especially with the Winter Olympics approaching, but just wanted progress, without any rush. I want to ski and give it my all; my drive to push myself remains strong despite seven injuries she said. Reporting by Elvira Pollina Writing by Keith Weir Editing by Christian Rindge.
Sofia Goggia Two-Time Winter Olympic Medalist and Four-Time Downhill World Cup Champion
Sofia Goggia Italian born 15 November 1992 is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer who competes in all disciplines and specializes in downhill and super-G speed events. She is a two-time winter Olympic downhill medalist – gold at the 2018 Winter Olympic, the first for an Italian woman – and a four-time downhill World Cup title winner (2018, 2021-2023). You can read Winter Olympic 2026: Witness World Cup Glory as Alpine Skiing Takes over North America
Early Success and Breakthrough at the Winter Olympic
Having only four career giant slalom starts and no finishes in her World Cup history, Goggia was selected for the Italian women’s team at the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria. She took full advantage of the opportunity, securing two top-ten finishes: fourth in the super-G and seventh in the super combined. Goggia marked her first World Cup podium in November 2016, earning third place in the giant slalom in Killington. She won bronze in the same event at the World Championships in February. Goggia’s first World Cup win came down in March 2017 in Jeongseon, South Korea.
She followed that up with a super-G win the next day for her eleventh World Cup podium of the season. It was the fourth time she won multiple podiums at the same race venue and added a fifth with two podiums at the World Cup Finals in Aspen.She concluded the season with 1,197 World Cup points, achieving 13 podium finishes across four different disciplines, and secured third place overall.
In 2018, she won back-to-back World Cup downhills in mid-January in Bad Kleinkirchheim and Cortina d’Ampezzo. She clinched the downhill gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and also secured the downhill World Cup season title, narrowly surpassing Lindsey Vonn by three points.The season’s sporting achievements earned her a nomination for the Laureus World Sports Breakthrough of the Year Award.
Resilience and Continued Success in Alpine Skiing
A broken ankle in October 2018 sidelined Goggia for most of the World Cup season. However, she made a comeback in late January 2019, finishing as the runner-up in her first two starts at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She won her first race of the season since returning from injury in the women’s downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in February.
At the World Championships in Are, Goggia won silver in the Super-G, 0.02 seconds behind gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin.
In June 2019, the Italian Olympic Committee appointed Goggia as an ambassador for the country’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. On June 24, she was part of the Italian delegation at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, where Milan-Cortina was chosen as the host, defeating Stockholm-Åre.
During the 2020 season, Goggia secured two Super-G podiums, clinching victory in St. Moritz and finishing second in Sochi, both alongside teammate Federica Brignone. Unfortunately, her season came to an abrupt end in early February when she fell during the super-G race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, resulting in a fractured left arm.
A Comeback and Continued Dominance in Downhill Skiing
In December 2020, Goggia took her first World Cup downhill victory in almost two years on the Oreiller-Killy slope in Val d’Isère, France, a day after a runner-up finish on the same hill in the first downhill race of the season. . She continued her podium-topping year in the discipline in January 2021 with a first-place finish at St. Anton, Austria and back-to-back wins on the Mont Lachaux course in Crans-Montana. Having won four consecutive downhill races, Goggia became the first woman to achieve the feat since Vonn in 2018.
On January 31, while skiing in the valley after the canceled super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Goggia fell into the snow wet, breaking a bone in her right knee. The injury forced him to miss the World Indoor Championships in Cortina – starting just a week after the crash – and two downhill World Cup races. She returned to training in early March, planning to defend her downhill lead at the final event of the season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. On 17 March, Goggia became the downhill World Cup champion for the second time in his career, after heavy snowfall forced the cancellation of the race.
Triumph and Resilience at the 2022 Winter Olympic
In early December 2021, Goggia won all three races at Lake Louise for her first career hat-trick, joining Vonn (2011, 2012, 2015) and Katja Seizinger (1997) as the only women to do so. who won the descents and super-G. in classic Canadian settings.In October 2021, Goggia was appointed as Italy’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. On 23 January 2022, Goggia suffered a knee injury following a crash at the Cortina d’Ampezzo Super-G.
She immediately began physical rehabilitation with the goal of returning in time to defend her Olympic downhill title in mid-February. Goggia traveled to Beijing with the intention of participating in the downhill, but withdrew from her flag-carrying duties at the opening ceremony on 4 February. On February 15, despite all the obstacles, she won the silver medal in the downhill – her second consecutive Olympic medal in that event.
Continued Dominance and Challenges in the 2022-2023 Season
After the winter Olympic, Goggia did not have much success in the remaining World Cup events, but nevertheless won the downhill cup once again with her strong early season results (4 wins and a third place). In the 2022–2023 season, Goggia clinched victory in five out of the nine downhill races, while also securing three second-place finishes on the podium. At the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Andorra, she captured her fourth crystal globe in this discipline, marking her third consecutive win.
At the 2023 World Championships in Meribel, France, Goggia was a strong favorite for the downhill race, however, she was disqualified due to a gate.
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