Switzerland’s Corinne Suter wins downhill skiing gold in thrilling finish

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(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Switzerland’s Corinne Suter won gold in the women’s downhill event, finishing .16 ahead of defending Olympic champion Sofia Goggia.

Suter finished in a time of 1:31.87, mere minutes after Goggia posted a 1:32.03. Fellow Italian teammate Nadia Delgado finished in third with a time of 1:32.44. It’s the first Olympic medal of Suter’s career.

American Mikaela Shiffrin finished 18th.

The gold continues a run of medals for Swiss skiers at these Olympic Games. With her victory, Switzerland has won four gold medals in eight events, and seven overall. Teammate Lara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G.

For Goggia, it was a triumphant return after suffering leg injuries in a super-G crash in January that nearly left her out of the Olympics. The Italian partially tore her ACL and fractured her fibula in the crash. She skipped the super-G last Friday and took a pair of training runs over the weekend to help prepare for the downhill.

​​“After that crash, I don’t think anybody knows the full details of her injury,” Shiffrin told the Washington Post. “But it’s a significant injury. It feels a little bit impossible that she got here.”

“I found an incredible strength inside of myself,” Goggia said afterward. “I was traveling by a sort of light. I’m glad I gave everything to be here today, I’m glad and grateful that I could achieve another medal, and I’m happy with myself.”