Departure in Cortina: Stephanie Venier wins, Mikaela Shiffrin crashes hard – five riders on the podium

Keira Weddle finished 16th, 1.65 seconds behind, and Emma Eicher, like many riders, fell on this descent, as dozens of athletes did not finish. DSV announced on Friday evening that Eicher “sustained bruising to the edge of her boot as a result of her fall” and therefore “will not be starting” on Saturday.

Shiffrin limped to the rescue helicopter, his face contorted in pain. The skating queen converted her crutches to crutches to relieve pressure on her left knee, which was clearly badly damaged. The best skier in history is the next high-profile fall victim of this pandemic season – and not the only one in a completely chaotic race in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

“You should almost be happy when you're safe,” said Weidel, who was in big trouble at the scene just before Shiffrin. Like Shiffrin, Olympic downhill champion Corinne Sutter was also caught after jumping in front of the left turn. The Swiss woman screamed in pain after landing hard and also grabbed her left knee.

Several other athletes also fell, including Aicher, joint world champion Federica Brignone of Italy, and joint Olympic champion Michel Gisin (Switzerland). But they all came out lightly. And yet: Venier's success in a second World Cup on the unusually undulating Tofana Stadium is made simple given all the falls. The Austrian beat Super-G Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami (+0.39 seconds), and Weidel missed the top 15.

The last time he was on the podium five times at a World Cup final was at the men's super-G in Beaver Creek in 2018. The winner at that time was Austria's Max Franz, and Shiffrin's partner Alexander Aamodt Kjelde was one of the third three. Place of finishes.

Shiffrin was pushed backwards after the jump, fell shortly after landing and crashed into a safety fence. She remained on the runway for approximately five minutes and was rescued by helicopter. Sutter was taken away on a quad bike, and there was initially no accurate diagnosis in either case.

The top duo join the ever-growing list of ski stars who have been involved in serious accidents this winter. Shiffrin's friend Alexander Aamodt Kjelde (Norway) will be out for the rest of the season after collapsing in Wengen, as is her top slalom rival Petra Vlhova (Slovakia). Frenchman Alexis Pinturault and Marco Schwarz from Austria were also seriously injured – all these athletes have high medals at the Olympic Games and World Cup.

Norwegian Kaisa Vikhoff told me that the situation in Cortina was “more serious” than usual this year, so Shiffrin suffered “a few moments of shock” during the only training session, as she put it. “It's a little different, more jumps, more terrain,” Weidel said. “And if the direction or movement isn't right, you're going to have big problems.” “Every second goal is in the air, there is a hill or something everywhere,” Eicher told ZDF.

At the finish line on the road where she won world championship silver behind Sutter in 2021, Weidel reacted with a puzzled shake of her head. But she was more concerned with her performance. “Mistakes happen, it was a tough race. There's another chance tomorrow,” she said later. Then the next descent is on Tofana – without Shiffrin and Sutter.