Dec 14, 2024; Beaver Creek, CO, USA; Cornelia Huetter of Austria in the women's downhill race for the 2024 Stifel Birds of Prey Audi FIS alpine skiing World Cup at Birds of Prey. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-Imagn Images
(Reuters) - Austria's Cornelia Huetter claimed the first ever women's World Cup downhill event held on the formidable Birds of Prey course on Saturday in Beaver Creek, Colorado where Lindsey Vonn tested the track ahead of her comeback next week.
Huetter, the reigning World Cup downhill crystal globe winner, covered one of the world's most difficult tracks in one minute 32.38 seconds to beat Italy's Sofia Goggia, who had the top time in training on Friday, by 0.16 seconds.
Defending overall World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, who posted the fastest time on Thursday in the second of this week's three training runs, finished third and 0.34 seconds off the pace.
Traditionally reserved for men's World Cup downhill events, this week saw women take centre stage at Beaver Creek for their first downhill race of the 2024-25 season.
Huetter, whose best training result came on Thursday when she finished sixth, was the 11th skier out of the starting hut and thrived in ideal conditions before waiting at the bottom for the rest of the 45-woman field to challenge.
"It was not easy, I had feelings in the first training that I was skiing OK, I was skiing not how I want to ski but it was going all good, I had solid speed," said Huetter.
"And today, the tricky turns, I think I did really good today and took all the speed with me so I think that was the secret today."
For Huetter, the win marked her seventh career World Cup victory and third in downhill.
Vonn, who next week in St Moritz, Switzerland will return to the World Cup circuit for the first time in nearly six years, tested out the Birds of Prey course as a forerunner ahead of the race.
The 40-year-old American speed specialist, who last week raced in the lower-level FIS Fall Festival, looked comfortable on the Birds of Prey but how she fared against the rest of the skiers was unknown as only competitors have official times.
The action at Beaver Creek resumes on Sunday with a women's World Cup super-G.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
