In 2019, after two top 10 finishes in training, Ester Ledecka finally locked in her line to overcome snowy, bumpy course conditions and win her first-ever World Cup. In 2018, the Czech snowboarder turned alpine ski racer surprised the world when she won Super-G gold in PyeongChang. Since then she’s been trying to find the same speed in a World Cup race. Today in Lake Louise, she was finally successful, beating out Switzerland’s Corinne Suter by 0.35 seconds. Stephanie Venier finished third (+0.45).
Nicole Schmidhofer, the 2018 winner of the two Downhills in Lake Louise, returned a year after to the top of the podium.
The second Audi FIS Ski World Cup Downhill of the season for the Ladies went down on December 7 at Lake Louise and saw Nicole Schmidhofer claiming the win, followed by Mikaela Shiffrin (+0.13) and Francesca Marsaglia (+0.43).
Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg won the Super-G event in 2019. The second and third steps of the podium are occupied by two athletes who conquered it for the first time in this discipline. The biggest threat to Rebensburg's win came from the back of the pack, the young Italian Nicol Delago, who skied into second from bib 31.
Behind Delago was Switzerland’s Corinne Suter, who followed up her Downhill podium with yet another podium in the Super-G.
Last season, Sofia Goggia won the Downhill crystal globe for a second time, after 2017-2018. She can become the first woman to win the Downhill globe in successive
seasons since Lindsey Vonn (2014-2015, 2015-2016).
The Italian finished on the podium in all five of her Downhill participations in the 2020-2021 World Cup. Goggia finished second in the first race in Val d'Isère, before recording four successive wins in Val d'Isère (2), St. Anton, and twice in Crans-Montana.
Sofia Goggia has claimed eight Downhill wins in the World Cup.
Lara Gut-Behrami has won the overall globe (2015-2016) and three Super-G globes (2013-2014, 2015-2016, and 2020-2021).
Gut-Behrami (32) is one shy of equalling Hanni Wenzel (33) in ninth place on the women's list for most World Cup wins.
The triple-medal winner in Cortina, -she won the world titles in the Super-G and Giant slalom and the bronze medal in the Downhill- has won the most Downhill races in the World Cup among active female skiers.
The Swiss skier is level with Maria Höfl-Riesch (both 11) in ninth place on the list for most women's World Cup downhill victories. Marie-Theres Nadig (13) and Isolde Kostner (12) are in seventh and eighth place respectively.
Gut-Behrami won the two most recent World Cup Downhill races, held in Val di Fassa on 26 and 27 February.
Lara Gut-Behrami is level with Seizinger (both 16) in third place on the women's list for most World Cup victories in the Super-G, behind only Vonn (28) and Renate Götschl (17).
Of Gut-Behrami's 16 super-G wins in the World Cup, three were achieved in Lake Louise (2013, 2014, and 2016). Only Vonn (4) won the Lake Louise Super-G more times.
Gut-Behrami finished on the podium in each of the last five World Cup Super-G events. The Swiss claimed four successive wins from the start of 2021 (St. Anton, Crans-Montana, and twice in Garmisch-Partenkirchen), before finishing runner-up to Federica Brignone in Val di Fassa on 28 February.
Corinne Suter won the Downhill crystal globe in 2019-2020 and finished second last season. Suter has collected two World Cup event wins in the Downhill, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on 11 January 2020, and in last season's Downhill opener in Val d'Isère on 18 December 2020. She has claimed 10 World Cup podiums in the Downhill, all in her last 17 appearances in this discipline.
The Swiss won the Downhill world title at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The last Swiss woman to achieve a World Cup Downhill win in Lake Louise was Chantal Bournissen on 19 December 1992.
Corinne Suter won the Super-G crystal globe in 2019-2020. She finished in third place in the 2020-2021 Super-G World Cup standings.
She has collected six World Cup podiums in the Super-G. Suter's only World Cup win in this discipline came in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February 2020.
Mikaela Shiffrin achieved four World Cup wins in the super-G (including her first in Lake Louise in 2018), all in her last seven World Cup participation in this discipline. Her most recent World Cup Super-G appearance resulted in a win, in Bansko on 26 January 2020.
Ester Ledecká won the opening World Cup race in this discipline, in Val d'Isère on 20 December 2020. The most recent woman to win the opening Super-G race in successive World Cup seasons was Lara Gut-Behrami in 2013-2014 (Beaver Creek) and 2014-2015 (Lake Louise).
Breezy Johnson finished in third place in each of the opening four Downhill events of the 2020-2021 World Cup, to date her only World Cup podiums.
Kira Weidle, silver medallist in the Downhill at the 2021 World
Championships finished third in the most recent Downhill race held in the World Cup, in Val di Fassa on 27 February.
Nicole Schmidhofer, winner of the 2018/19 downhill crystal globe, could make her comeback to the World Cup. All three of her World Cup downhill wins came in Lake Louise, two in 2018 and one in 2019.
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