The women's downhill in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of eight events, including the final. The tentative schedule called for eleven events, but a new event, the team combined, which was scheduled for 16 February 2024 in Crans Montana, was cancelled and converted into an additional downhill on the final schedule, increasing the planned schedule to twelve. However, as discussed below in the season summary, cancellations reduced that number during the season. The season champion was Cornelia Hütter of Austria, ending a string of three straight season triumphs by Sofia Goggia of Italy, who was injured just after the midpoint of the season but still finished third.
Season summary The first two downhills of the season were scheduled for 18 and 19 November 2023 on the "Gran Becca" course on the Matterhorn, which crosses an international border between the start (Zermatt, in Switzerland) and the finish (Cervinia, in Italy); the course name comes from the local dialect in Valtournenche, in which the Matterhorn is called “Gran Becca”, meaning “big peak”. However, the first downhill of the season was cancelled due to high winds on the Matterhorn, and its rescheduling or replacement was not planned. The scheduled race the next day also was cancelled due to high winds, and its rescheduling or replacement was also not planned, thus reducing the season to ten events.
As a result, the first downhill was held in St. Moritz, Switzerland on 9 December, and visibility deteriorated so badly during the break after the first 30 skiers that the remainder of the race was canceled after 35 skiers; three of the five after the break failed to finish. However, the race was official since the 30 skiers had already gone, and it resulted in an upset victory for two-time defending overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. (only her fourth downhill win of her all-time record 91 total victories). However, Shiffrin only competed in one of the next four downhills, in Cortina, in which she crashed and was injured, and those four downhills were won by four different skiers from four different countries: Jasmine Flury of Switzerland; three-time defending discipline champion Sofia Goggia of Italy; Stephanie Venier of Austria; and Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway. The wide distribution of results left Goggia in the overall lead at the halfway point of the season, with an 89-point lead over Venier with four races to go.
The following downhill, scheduled for the first week of February in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, was then cancelled due to warm weather, giving the many injured skiers on the World Cup circuit another week to recover. However, even the time off didn't affect the proliferation of injuries, with discipline leader Goggia requiring immediate surgery after breaking two bones in her right leg while doing giant slalom training in Italy, putting her on the sidelines for the rest of the season along with Swiss skiers Joana Hählen and Corinne Suter and Canadian skier Valérie Grenier, while Shiffrin also was still out after her crash in Cortina. In the first race back after Goggia's injury, at Crans Montana in Switzerland, Swiss star Lara Gut-Behrami became the sixth different winner in six races for the season, and her victory moved her to within 41 points of Goggia's season lead. and three other racers -- Venier, Flury, and Cornelia Hütter of Austria -- closed to within 100 points. The next day, a seventh different winner, Marta Bassino of Italy, took advantage of an early start time on a melting course to claim the top step of the podium ahead of Brignone and Gut-Behrami; however, Gut-Behrami took over the season lead in the discipline (with just two races to go), giving her the current lead in three of the four disciplines as well as the overall lead.
The next-to-last downhill of the season, in Kvitfjell, was scheduled for 2 March, but both planned training runs, on 29 February and 1 March, were cancelled by heavy snowfall, which meant the downhill could not be run (as at least one training run prior to the race is required); instead, the race was converted to a super-G to replace one of the two races in that discipline cancelled the prior week.
Finals The World Cup finals in women's downhill were held on Saturday, 23 March 2024 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. For the first time since the finals began in 1993, the downhill was the last event of the finals instead of the first, with the women's race being held on Saturday and the men's on Sunday. Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup downhill discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline (Victoria Olivier of Austria), plus any skiers who had scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, were eligible to compete in the discipline final, and only the top 15 earned World Cup points. Due to injuries, six qualified skiers (Goggia, Shiffrin, Flury, Hählen, Grenier, and Laura Gauché of France) missed the finals, and one non-qualified skier with 500 points (Alice Robinson) opted to compete, so the final consisted of 21 racers.
Gut-Behrami carried a lead of 68 points over Venier and 72 points over Hütter into the final, so she only needed to tie for eighth (worth 32 points) to clinch the season title. Hütter, skiing twelfth, moved into first by half a second, but Gut-Behrami, skiing just two racers later, played it too safe and was almost two seconds behind (which was not in the top 15), giving Hütter only the second downhill win of her career (about six-and-one-half years after her first, at Lake Louise in 2017) and the discipline crown for the season.
Standings Venue#SkierTotal Cornelia Hütter x 5060153236x8024x1003972 Lara Gut-Behrami x 2024408045x10060x03693 Sofia Goggia x 80501006060xDNS3504 Stephanie Venier x 36DNS8010045x2614x453465 Federica Brignone x 603218DNF22x4080x292816 Jasmine Flury x 13100242224x8012xDNS2757 Mirjam Puchner x 4526602920x1615x402518 Ilka Štuhec x 1845221012x2926x802429 Marta Bassino x 261202429x45100x023610 Laura Pirovano x 714204018x5045x2221611 Ariane Rädler x 1536361115x3240x2621112 x 218616100x2236x020013 Nicol Delago x 1111601213x1516x6019814 Jacqueline Wiles x DNS6182080x2020x2018415 Kira Weidle x 29204515DNFx913x3216316 Kajsa Vickhoff Lie x 1622DNF3632x2432x016217 Laura Gauché x 89291850x1829xDNS16118 Christina Ager x 10366014x05x50 148 Priska Nufer x 144026DNF16x360x1614820 Joana Hählen x 6801326DNFDNS12521 Michelle Gisin x 321132DNFDNSx50x3611622 Mikaela Shiffrin x 100DNSDNFDNS10023 Ester Ledecká x 9157DNSDNFx1418x248724 Elvedina Muzaferija x DNF0006x1350x06925 Valérie Grenier x DNS60DNFDNS6026 Delia Durrer x 121612210x32xNE5727 Emma Aicher x 407DNFDNFDNSx8DNFxNE5528 Corinne Suter x 2429DNFDNFDNSNE5329 Isabella Wright x 2221413DNFxDNFDNFxNE5130 Teresa Runggaldier x DNS00511x1024xNE50 Christine Scheyer x 413119DNFx211xNE5032 Romane Miradoli x DNS0026x129xNE4733 Lauren Macuga x DNS00158x118xNE4234 Nadia Delago x 55989x00xNE3635 Alice Robinson x DNS0DNSx14x182336 Sabrina Maier x 0010DNFDNSx64xNE2037 x DNS881DNFxDNSxNE1738 Stephanie Jenal x DNS4DNF3x07xNE1439 Noémie Kolly x DNSDNFDNSx76xNE1340 Keely Cashman x DNS1047xDNSxNE1241 x DNS0DNF06x41xNE1142 Emily Schöpf x DNS00DNSx010xNE1043 x 34DNSxNE7 Roberta Melesi x DNS7DNSx0DNSxNE745 Ricarda Haaser x DNS6DNSx00xNE646 Jasmina Suter x DNS0DNS04x00xNE447 Vicky Bernardi x DNS3DNSx00xNE3 Tricia Mangan x DNSDNFDNF30xDNF0xNE3 Lena Wechner x DNS02DNF1xDNS0xNE350 Nadine Fest x DNF0DNSDNF2x00xNE251 Lisa Hörnblad x DNS01DNF0x00xNE1 Juliana Suter x 1DNSNE1References
Legend
DNF = Did not finish DSQ = Disqualified
See also 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's summary rankings 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's overall 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's super-G 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's giant slalom 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's slalom World Cup scoring system
References
External links Alpine Skiing at FIS website