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Tag: world cup skiing

  • Sofia Goggia lights the cauldron in Cortina after helping Italy secure Olympic hosting rights

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    Sofia Goggia had a key role in securing the hosting rights of the Milan Cortina Olympics for Italy.So it seemed fitting that the Italian downhiller lit the cauldron in Cortina to conclude Friday’s opening ceremony, while retired Olympic skiing champions Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni performed the honors simultaneously in Milan.In 2019, Goggia and snowboarder Michela Moioli made a joint speech and dabbed in unison before nearly 100 members of the International Olympic Committee at the voting session for the 2026 Games. Their presentation was later considered vital for Milan Cortina’s successful bid — winning over voters with their positive energy to overcome a rival candidacy from Sweden.Goggia won gold in the downhill at the 2018 Olympics and took silver four years later in Beijing weeks after crashing in Cortina.She’ll race for more medals in the women’s downhill on Sunday in Cortina.Goggia has had a series of highs and lows in Cortina. She’s won four World Cup downhills on the mountain but missed the 2021 world championships at the Alpine resort because of injury.It was a big night for Italian Alpine skiers, with defending overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone one of the host country’s flag bearers in Cortina. Olympic curling champion Amos Mosaner, Italy’s other flag bearer in Cortina, held Brignone on his shoulders when the Azzurri paraded through the town center.”I’m heavy,” Brignone said, “so I wasn’t sure he could carry me.”

    CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy —

    Sofia Goggia had a key role in securing the hosting rights of the Milan Cortina Olympics for Italy.

    So it seemed fitting that the Italian downhiller lit the cauldron in Cortina to conclude Friday’s opening ceremony, while retired Olympic skiing champions Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni performed the honors simultaneously in Milan.

    In 2019, Goggia and snowboarder Michela Moioli made a joint speech and dabbed in unison before nearly 100 members of the International Olympic Committee at the voting session for the 2026 Games. Their presentation was later considered vital for Milan Cortina’s successful bid — winning over voters with their positive energy to overcome a rival candidacy from Sweden.

    FRANCK FIFE

    Italian alpine skier Sofia Goggia holds the Olympic torch under the Cortina cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP via Getty Images)

    Goggia won gold in the downhill at the 2018 Olympics and took silver four years later in Beijing weeks after crashing in Cortina.

    She’ll race for more medals in the women’s downhill on Sunday in Cortina.

    Goggia has had a series of highs and lows in Cortina. She’s won four World Cup downhills on the mountain but missed the 2021 world championships at the Alpine resort because of injury.

    It was a big night for Italian Alpine skiers, with defending overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone one of the host country’s flag bearers in Cortina. Olympic curling champion Amos Mosaner, Italy’s other flag bearer in Cortina, held Brignone on his shoulders when the Azzurri paraded through the town center.

    “I’m heavy,” Brignone said, “so I wasn’t sure he could carry me.”

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  • Nothing beats the thrill of watching downhill daredevils ski at 75 mph at Beaver Creek

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    Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).

    My favorite place to be on the first weekend of December is at the foot of a mountain at Beaver Creek, watching the world’s best downhillers plummet down an icy race course with steeps and jumps at speeds approaching 80 miles per hour.

    And this year, the annual Beaver Creek World Cup races offer previews of the marquee men’s ski races at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, now only 75 days away in Northern Italy.

    Much of the world-renowned Birds of Prey downhill course follows terrain that is rated double-black diamond for the rest of us — yes, you can ski it after the racers head to Europe and Beaver Creek grooms it — but elite racers make a lot fewer turns.

    It takes them a little over a minute and 40 seconds to descend 2,470 feet, which is about twice the height of Lookout Mountain in Golden from base to summit. The race course measures more than a mile and a half, over which racers average nearly 60 mph with peak speeds of more than 75 mph. Yet the top racers always finish within fractions of seconds of each other.

    This year, there will be four days of racing with two downhills, Dec. 4-5, a super-G on Dec. 6 and a giant slalom on Dec. 7. Admission for the races is free, although VIP tickets are available. Bleachers will be set up in the finish area, and race action will be shown on a large video screen, even as it is being transmitted to Europe for a prime-time TV audience.

    If you’re not a skier, giant slalom may not be very exciting. Downhill, though, is thrilling even if you know nothing about the sport because of the high speeds and risk involved. That’s also true of super-G, which is similar to downhill except there are more turns and speeds aren’t quite as fast.

    The Birds of Prey course has been regarded internationally as one of the world’s best since it debuted in 1997. Since then, it has hosted scores of World Cup races, plus world championship races in 1999 and 2015. The world championship downhill races in 1999 attracted more than 20,000 spectators, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria who was there to root on Hermann Maier and his Austrian teammates.

    Maier had won two Olympic gold medals a year earlier and was known around the world as the Herminator. (The moniker played off the starring role Schwarzenegger played in “The Terminator,” a 1984 sci-fi film.)

    I covered the annual Beaver Creek races for two decades, as well as seven Winter Olympics and five world championships in Colorado, Austria and Italy. The most remarkable race of them all was the super-G at the 1999 Beaver Creek world championships. The top two finishers tied for the gold medal — the first-ever world championships gold medal tie — and the third-place finisher finished 0.01 of a second behind. And yet, the two who tied for gold were the heavy favorites going into the race, Maier and Norwegian Lasse Kjus.

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    John Meyer

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