Cortina d'Ampezzo Women's Races Preview

Next weekend the Women's World Cup is back to Cortina, the ‘Queen of the Dolomites’. Three days of action with two Downhills, and Super-G.

Cortina d'Ampezzo (ITA)

January 20th Downhill / Women (instead of the scheduled Super-G., replaces St. Anton) 10:15 CET

January 21 Downhill / Women 10:00 CET

January 22nd Super-G / Women 11:30 CET

Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the most charming ski resorts in Italy. The small town is located in the Northern Italian province of Belluno in the Veneto region, near the northeastern border with Austria. Surrounded by the imposing peaks of the Tofana, the Monte Cristallo, and the Sorapis Dolomites, Cortina is known as the "Regina delle Dolomiti". Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the 12 ski areas of the Dolomiti Superski Ski Paradise, one of the biggest ski areas in the world with 1,200 kilometers of slopes, modern cable cars, and fabulous mountain scenery all around.

Cortina is immersed in a landscape of unparalleled natural beauty, set in the spectacular Dolomite mountains, declared by UNESCO a World Natural Heritage Area.

Cortina d’Ampezzo made its debut on the FIS World Cup with the Men’s Downhill in 1969 and became a fixture on the Women’s Downhill tour for three years beginning in 1975. After a long hiatus, the venue has been an annual stop on the Women’s World Cup since 1993, hosting Downhill, and Super-G races on the marvelous Olimpia delle Tofane slope, one of the most spectacular settings on the circuit.

In 2020 Cortina d’Ampezzo was ready to host the World Cup Finals, but the pandemic breakout forced FIS to canceled the event.

The winter sport events circuit managed finally to restart in 2021 and in february Cortina d'Ampezzo brilliantly pulled off the most important international event held during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cortina 2021 Alpine Ski World Championships.

Cortina, with Milan, will jointly host the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. It will be the first Olympic Games featuring multiple host cities in an official form and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 at which the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. This will be the third time Italy will host the Winter Olympics, twenty years after Turin 2006 and 70 years after the previous games held in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956. The Cortina Olympics in 1956 were the first Winter Olympics televised to a multi-national audience.

The Olympia delle Tofane, with 2,560 meters of length and stretches of absolute spectacularity such as the "Schuss", with a maximum slope of 65%, where the speed specialists jump and reach speeds of over 130 km/h., the "Salto Duca d'Aosta" and the blind passage of the "Delta", the complicated "Gran Curvone" and the subsequent change of slope of the "Scarpadon".In the final stretch where the gradient decreases, skiers have to keep the speed high to face the final traverse and the final jump. The Olympia delle Tofane will be offering again ski fans a minute and a half of pure adrenaline.

The slope hosted the ski competitions during the 1956 Winter Olympics, hosts the women's Ski World Cup competitions every year and in 2021 it was the Downhill, Super-G and Giant Slalom slope during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Last season Sofia Goggia claimed her second World Cup win in Cortina d'Ampezzo, after winning the Downhill event on 19 January 2018. In a shortened track, start was moved down in front of the Duca D'Aosta hut because of the strong wind in the upper part, Goggia confirmed her favorite role in Cortina with an unusual line despite a couple of heart-stopping mistakes in the two first sections of the race.

Ramona Siebenhofer, who won the two Downhill races in Cortina in 2019, finished in second place +0.20 seconds behind Goggia.

Ester Ledecka finished in third place +0.26 seconds behind the Italian. Just a month before she had won the Snowboard World Cup on the slopes of Ampezzo.

The next day Elena Curtoni confirmed Italian dominance in women's speed events. A day after Goggia's triumph at the Olimpia delle Tofane, Curtoni secured another home win. The last Italian woman to win a World Cup Super G event in Cortina d'Ampezzo was Isolde Kostner on January 25, 1997.

Tamara Tippler finished in second place, +0.09 seconds behind Curtoni.

Michelle Gisin finished in the third position, +0.24 seconds behind the Italian.

During the Super-G Sofia Goggia had a fall in the "Scarpadon" Downhill section, suffering an injury to her left knee.