Austrian skier Huetter wins World Cup downhill, world champion Johnson finishes 3rd

By Canadian Press on February 28, 2025.

KVITFJELL, Norway (AP) — Cornelia Huetter won the first women’s World Cup downhill since the Alpine skiing world championships on Friday to give new life to the battle for the discipline title.

The Austrian got her second downhill win of the season after beating Emma Aicher of Germany by 0.15 seconds. The 21-year-old Aicher secured her first career podium finish.

Downhill world champion Breezy Johnson finished 0.40 seconds behind in third as the American continued the wait for her maiden World Cup victory.

Huetter also won the season opener in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December and closed the gap on discipline leader Federica Brignone to 26 points with three races left this season.

Brignone placed fifth, shortly behind Italian teammate Sofia Goggia, a week after she got back-to-back wins in two giant slalom races in Italy.

Huetter won the downhill title last season.

Lindsey Vonn finished 1.15 seconds off the lead and outside the top 10 as the 2010 Olympic champion continued her comeback season after six years away from racing.

“Experimenting every day with my equipment and I think I’m making progress. Focused on trying to improve every day, even if it’s small,” Vonn posted on Instagram on the eve of the race.

Results were provisional as lower-ranked skiers were still racing.

After a freezing cold night, the snow surface was harder than during the training runs the past days, meaning skiers reached higher speeds and needed to judge their turns differently on a course they were not used to race on.

Kvitfjell is an annual stop on the men’s circuit but hosted only one women’s downhill over the past 22 years, when Kajsa Vickhoff Lie celebrated a home win in 2023.

Another downhill is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a super-G the next day.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

The Associated Press