Yesterday, the last Super-G of the season did not bring a happy ending for Cornelia Hütter in the fight for the Crystal Globe. Today, the 31-year-old Styrian skier, on a thrilling day, won the last Downhill race of the season and claimed the discipline Crystal Globe. The last time an Austrian skier led the Downhill standings was in 2019 when Nicole Schmidhofer won in front of an Austrian trio of Stephanie Venier and Ramona Siebenhofer.
Huetter finished ahead of Ilka Stuhec (+0.17) and Nicol Delago (+0.49). It was her sixth World Cup victory and the second in the Downhill. Her previous win was in Lake Louise back in 2017.
Cornelia Hütter became the first Austrian woman to win a World Cup Downhill event in Austria since Christine Scheyer triumphed in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on January 15, 2017.
"It’s completely unrealistic right now. Two days ago I dreamed that I would succeed in the Super-G, I had the chance there too. It's incredible. In the Super-G I believed in it more. I felt so slow when I was skiing today, but then I noticed the mega atmosphere at the finish and the number one lit up. I was trembling, because if someone else finished in front of me, it wouldn't have been possible," Hütter said.
"I'm really speechless. It's amazing to have a home race with this ending, I never can imagine it. This morning I woke up and I slept so bad, and I woke up and I thought, 'Give your best, it's the last chance today for this season,' and I did it," she added.
To complete the celebration of the Austrian team, after today's race, Austria won the Women's World Nations Cup with 4,977 points, ahead of Switzerland with 4,644 and Italy with 4,353.
Big favorite Lara Gut-Behrami not only missed the podium today in Saalbach but also missed the Top 15, she finished in 17th place, and thus the points. This means that the Downhill Crystal Globe slips out of the hands of the Overall World Cup winner at the very last moment.
"Since Mont-Tremblant, we've been skiing in all kinds of conditions. This is nothing new. I don't want to talk about the weather right now. That doesn't make any sense. We've all been in bad conditions. Sometimes luck is on your side, sometimes it's not. It certainly wasn’t the problem today," Gut-Behrami said.
"Today I wasn't able to ski fast. It's deserved by Conny. I always try to do my best, today it wasn't good enough. I never expected to win three Crystal Globes, it’s not the end of the world that I don’t have the fourth. At the end I'm really happy about the season — altogether, I can't really complain," she added.
Today in Saalbach, the 248th race of her career was also the last one for Ragnhild Mowinckel. She ends her career with four World Cup wins, including a Downhill triumph this season in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and four Olympic and World Championship medals.