PREVIEW LADIES’ ROSA KHUTOR DOWNHILL – Saturday 2 Mar 2019

Battle for the crystal globe • Nicole Schmidhofer (444 points), Ramona Siebenhofer (354), Stephanie Venier (340) and Kira Weidle (278) are the four women still in contention for the downhill crystal globe. • Schmidhofer secures the downhill crystal globe if she has a lead of at least 101 points after the race in Rosa Khutor. • Austria has won the ladies' downhill crystal globe a record 18 times, but not since Renate Götschl won in 2007. • The last Austrian woman to win a World Cup standings was Eva Maria- Brem who won the crystal globe in 2016.

Austria seeking sixth downhill victory • Austrian women have won five of the seven ladies' downhill events this World Cup season: Nicole Schmidhofer (2), Ramona Siebenhofer (2) and Stephanie Venier (1). • This century, only one country has won at least six ladies' World Cup downhill races in a season: United States in 2009/10 (6, all by Lindsey Vonn). • Austrian women could claim six downhill victories in a World Cup season for the first time since 1998/99 (6). • Siebenhofer and Schmidhofer could both become the first Austrian woman to win three World Cup downhill events in one season since Renate Götschl in 2006/07 (4 wins).

Other contenders • Sofia Goggia has claimed three wins and four second places in her last eight World Cup downhill participations. She won the last World Cup downhill race, in Crans-Montana. • Goggia could win successive downhill races on the World Cup for the second time after January 2018, when she won in Bad Kleinkirchheim and Cortina d'Ampezzo. • Goggia has won six World Cup races in all disciplines, equal to . Only (16), (15), (10) and Karen Putzer (8) have won more among Italian women. • Kira Weidle has finished on the podium of a ladies' World Cup downhill race twice this season, third in Lake Louise and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. • The last German woman to win a downhill race on the World Cup was Maria Höfl-Riesch in Cortina d'Ampezzo on 24 January 2014. • Corinne Suter collected a silver (downhill) and bronze (super-G) medal at this year's World Championships in Åre. • Last weekend, Suter finished third in the downhill race in Crans-Montana, her first World Cup podium.

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• The last Swiss woman to win a downhill race On the World Cup was Lara Gut-Behrami in Cortina d'Ampezzo on 28 January 2017.

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