The women's downhill in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season finals in Soldeu, Andorra. Defending discipline champion Sofia Goggia of Italy fractured her ankle prior to the start of the season and missed five of the eight events, ending her chances to repeat. In addition, 2018 runner-up Lindsey Vonn of the USA, who had closed the prior season by winning all of the final four downhills and needed only four more victories to equal Ingemar Stenmark's all-time World Cup victory record, began the season injured and announced her planned retirement at the end of the season, but was hampered during her comeback by her cumulative injuries, and finally retired immediately after the conclusion of the 2019 World Ski Championships.
Among this wide=open field, Austrian skier Nicole Schmidhofer grabbed the lead in the discipline going into the next-to-last race of the season at Crans Montana in Switzerland, where a bizarre timing mishap occurred. In a race won by Goggia after her return, Schmidhofer was originally announced as placing third in the downhill, but before the podium, the placings were controversially changed and Schmidhofer was demoted to fourth behind Goggia and two Swiss skiers, Joana Hählen and Lara Gut-Behrami. However, three days later, the official standings were again changed as, after a review of the adjustments made due to a timer misplacement, it turned out that four Swiss skiers (including both Hählen and Gut-Behrami) had been given incorrect adjustments, and Schmidhofer was moved up to second, giving her a 90-point lead with one race to go, virtually clinching the discipline championship for the season. Schmidhofer then secured the title for 2019 at the season finals in Soldeu, Andorra when her nearest rival, fellow Austrian Ramona Siebenhofer, failed to win the race.
The season was interrupted by the 2019 World Ski Championships, which were held from 4–17 February in Åre, Sweden. The women's downhill was held on 10 February.
Standings #Skier Total Nicole Schmidhofer1001002622803680244682 Stephanie Venier502936602010045323723 20406010010026803544 Ilka Štuhec4018100806045DNFDNS3435 Kira Weidle6024323250602029 3076 Corinne Suter 2232145005060602887 Sofia GoggiaDNS80100402208 Nicol Delago124580DNF24DNF22362199 Michelle Gisin 8060131836DNS20710 Nadia FanchiniDNF3632020403250 20111 Mirjam Puchner 0440120201310018912 Viktoria Rebensburg 1513DNS2445DNS80 17713 Cornelia Hütter2680DNS2940DNFDNS17514 Romane Miradoli 1514204515142620 16915 Tina Weirather45DNF24014151526 13916 Joana Hählen 32228791050DNF13817 Tamara Tippler03153620DNF144513318 Lara Gut-Behrami 18032882240DNS12819 Jasmine Flury1111501212DNF29012520 Ricarda Haaser 8122016529101611621 Federica Brignone 615DNS722DNF361810422 Michaela Wenig024514680229723 Ragnhild Mowinckel361310131624DNS8524 Ester Ledecká1026214320DNS08425 Mikaela Shiffrin2950DNS79References
DNF = Did Not Finish DNS = Did Not Start
See also 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's summary rankings 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's overall 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's super-G 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's giant slalom 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's slalom 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's combined
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