BERLIN: Germany’s Emma Aicher claimed her first career women’s alpine ski World Cup win here on Saturday in the downhill at Kvitfjell.
The 21-year-old, who had celebrated her maiden podium finish just a day earlier, secured the win with a time of 1 minute 31.69 seconds. American Lauren Macuga finished a close second, trailing by just 0.03 seconds, while Austria’s Cornelia Huetter took third place, 0.19 seconds behind.
“I really surprised myself; I didn’t think I was as fast as yesterday,” said an elated Aicher, who was born in Sweden and made her World Cup debut in 2021.
Huetter, who won Friday’s downhill on the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic course, moved within 16 points of Federica Brignone in the World Cup downhill standings.
With Sofia Goggia sitting 34 points behind in third, the battle for the discipline’s crystal globe will come down to the final two downhill races in La Thuile, Italy, and Sun Valley, USA.
Brignone finished fourth on Saturday, strengthening her lead in the overall World Cup standings. The Italian skier now holds a 231-point advantage over Lara Gut-Behrami, with nine races remaining this season.
However, that effectively narrows to seven, as Gut-Behrami has not competed in slalom since 2017, and two slalom races are still on the schedule.
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