Speed - Pre-Season 2025-26

    VERY unfortunately, getting on this post late saved me time.

    In addition to Fede’s nebulous prospects for competing this season, and Marta certainly hors de combat until fall 2026, four more top-flight Speed competitors are now out.

   Lara Gut-Behrami’s left knee horror (ACL, MCL, meniscus) training at Copper in November probably means her transcendent WAWC career is over.

    Lauren Macuga’s right ACL tear, training at Copper, scotches her season.

    Corrine Suter’s torn left leg muscle, banged-up left knee and right foot, training at St. Mortiz, sidelines her for at least a month, from what I see. When and whether she regains top competitive shape…

And just a few hours ago Michelle Gisin crashed heavily training at St. Moritz. Early reports say she hurt her neck (!!), with surgery performed quickly. Wrist and knee damage too.

    This really eats it. Two inner-circle Pantheon goddesses; a TOP 3-discipline star revving up after a lean season; an exuberant rising Speed Queen; one of the very best Downhillers of the past twenty years in “mid-prime,” and a joyful, 291-start WAWC veteran, gone.

    Dwelling on the sport’s brutality won’t do any good here. (As always, compared to the gruesome circumstances millions of people endure, ski racing is ultra-tame.)

    So, who’s gonna wave the Downhill and Super-G globes next March?

Super G: Gut-Behrami and Brignone finished 1st and 2nd for the last three Super G titles, and also in 2021. Fede won in 2022. Missing them, Sofia Goggia has a significant edge, I think. She was EOS third last year, 149 points clear of Kajsa Lie 4th. But see below--Kajsa's ascendant; Conny Heutter and Elena Curtoni have serious SG chops. Miradoli's gonna do well, I think. And there's this woman Vonn... Super G will be this season's most entertaining discipline for me. I'll call Sofia. I think she's primed for epic racing.

    Downhill will be Sofia Goggia or Conny Huetter…or Breezy!

    Prevaricate? Me? I have to go with Sofia. She was solid last season, with a trademark single DNF (3 of the last 4 campaigns) to go with 1^st; 2x2nd; 4^th; 6^th. (Last year just six DHs were run, owing to bad weather.) She’s totally psyched for Cortina, and I think will go ape on the long boards to hit the Olympic circus in top form. Who knows? If Goggia medals in February and takes a 5^th DH season title, she may say “Arrivederci!” Now, a proviso: per last post, this is Sofia’s best chance for an Overall title. So far her GS is middling—70 points and she’ll need a few hundred to compete with Her Highness for the large orb. If she doesn’t score well at Semmering and Kranjska Gora, she may drop GS to focus upon Speed/husband strength for Cortina. Conny and Breezy are very keen competition, but I think Sofia’s massive talent and burning pride will carry her to another DH title.

    And I’d be surprised if she hung ‘em up. With DH 19x1st Sofia’s by far the best Italian woman Downhiller, and tied for wins with Dominic Paris. Looking at overall Italian wins—Sofia’s 26 put her in third place, behind only Fede (37) and Alberto Tomba’s 50. Tomba was a Techie. Fede and Sofia are the Grandi Persone Italiane. Eleven more victories would be a very heavy lift; five more over two seasons to get 31 is totally doable. And another crack at the Worlds in 2027. Why not? If she’s feeling good, Sofia Goggia’s gonna roar another two years. Then get that Minimoog, or be declared Queen Sofia by popular acclaim. (Per Wikipedia, Italy hasn’t had a formal Queen Sofia. High time for one.)

    Sofia Goggia

Conny Huetter is one of my favorites. Her joie de vivre, gutsy race attack, recovery from bad injuries, and nads-out speed make her later-career triumph wonderful to see. Check out IG for life on the farm. Her family’s Styrian spread has wonderful critters, and tractors/practical machines. Horses/ponies with fringe over their eyes. (Haflinger?) Conny seems to be salt of the earth and a world citizen.

    She achieved her 2024 DH title—on an 8-race card, solid considering sketchy weather cancels at least a couple DHs per season—with 1 each 2^nd, 3d, 4^th; 7^th; 8^th; 11^th; 17^th…and a win at the final race to drive it home. Sofia missed three races with injury; Lara G-B had a solid but uneven campaign. Conny kept on it—no DNFs; snagged the globe with just 51 points between her and 4^th place.

    But this isn’t the story. Huetter was 2016 EOS DH 5^th then did her right ACL early 2017. 2018 EOS DH 4th, then another hurt knee March 2019. Missed all of 2020; two WAWC starts in 2021. Conny’s a MASSIVE talent who endured severe injuries right as she excelled. Then fought back with a huge heart and barrels of guts. No other way to put it. One of World Sport’s strongest and most appealing people.

     Conny Huetter

See my Feature post on Breezy Johnson 8 June 2023. Her DH talent rivals anyone’s. Injured at Cortina a month before Beijing, Johnson missing those Olympics was perhaps the biggest bummer of my WAWC experience thus far. (Partly, exactly because I have a certain disdain for the Olympics, since their importance is so overblown from a strict racing perspective, IMO. That track was right in Breezy’s wheelhouse. If anyone deserved her career blasted open for worldwide Plebian worship, to swing gold and pocket primo loot, it was Breezy. If Johnson smokes the Olimpia della Tofane on 8 February, God herself will forge the medal.)

    If Breezy skis this season as well as she did in 2021, she’ll finish 2^nd easy and maybe better. She put up 330 points in the seven DHs: 4x3d; 2x5th; DNF on the final race, which cost her EOS podium. (She took 4^th.) 2021 DH was Goggia (480pts), Suter (410pts), and Gut-Behrami (383pts) in top form. Even with a DNF, Breezy was 65 points clear of 5^th place, 53 behind 3d. She was ELITE.

    Is she still? Yes. She won DH gold at last year’s Worlds. 2025 EOS DH 7^th after 2024 season’s suspension was a solid return. (Johnson was out 2024 for violation of FIS’s “whereabouts” rule for doping testing. Basically, athletes must register their location in a database, from which testers may decide to meet them on short notice to administer a test. As I understand it, Breezy either wasn’t present where/when she said she’d be, or failed to provide her location as needed. Technical/database issues may have been involved, lessening the penalty. So her culpability wasn’t extreme, but a year suspension’s still severe.) If she had good summer/fall training and works an ascending rhythm as the season unrolls, she could begin to peak at Cortina and sustain a run for the DH title. It would be a big story for US athletics. Breezy’s paid heavy dues.

 Breezy Johnson

Laura Pirovano hit WAWC Speed full-time in autumn 2017 age 20, after an excellent Europa Cup apprenticeship and a Junior Worlds GS gold. A major young talent, primed to join the Italian team’s superb roster. Two significant knee injuries, January 2018 and fall 2021, cost her the 2019 WAWC season (rehabbing in EC) and 2022 completely—after EOS DH 6^th in 2021! Laura’s fought back and had a fine 2025: DH 9^th and SG 10^th. Turned 28 in November, she’s set to resume a trajectory into Speed’s T5 for a few seasons, at least. With Sofia and Conny probably both retired by autumn 2028 latest, Pirovano will stand with Johnson, Lie, Macuga, and perhaps Aicher as the premier fast people. (Malorie Blanc and Marte Monsen will take issue with that, I think.) To be brutally objective: Pirovano finished a solid 6^th in Downhill last season. Three competitors ahead of her--Fede, Lara, and Lauren—are now out of action. Laura has an EOS podium in hand with even modest improvement, and no DNFs.

    Laura Pirovano

Kajsa Lie, IMO with decent GS points a prime contender for Overall in the post-Shiffrin era, is on the Speed Big Person cusp. Spirited, a touch insouciant; Nordic flamboyance…? Kajsa’s a big personality, professional and committed. An Olympic medal will put her squarely on the European winter sport corporate radar. More to the point, she’s crack Super G, with EOS 4^th last season and 5^th in 2024. Of nine SGs in 2025, Lie was T8 in six, with a 2^nd. A 20^th and a 16^th were the major blemishes—though not DNFs! She was 149 points behind 3d-place Goggia, 33 ahead of Curtoni. With Gut-Behrami, Brignone, and Macuga out, no reason Lie can’t take EOS podium.

    Indeed, this may be her breakout year in Super G. Beating Sofia for the title will be tough, demanding extreme improvement and Sofia lapsing. But Kajsa’s right there for second place at the least. She’ll be perennial EOS SG podium for five seasons, and will take two globes. As for Downhill, last season she had a 2^nd, though the other five were out of the T10—2x12th the best of that. 2024 DH was uneven as well (EOS 16^th). But in 2023 she took EOS 8^th, with a 1^st, 2^nd, and 8^th off-setting five finishes way out of the T20. So DH is a bit of a mystery. However, Kajsa RARELY DNFs! This is vital. She’s well on her way to stardom.

Kajsa Lie

    As I write, I see Lyndsey Vonn was fastest in St. Mortiz training this morning, with Lie and Goggia following. Wow. I can’t offer anything about Vonn that hasn’t already been said. Without the 2+ seasons’ worth of races missed due to injuries, she’d have 100 wins easy. Her 43 DH victories is ski racing’s DiMaggio record, IMO. (Or Cy Young’s 511 wins, which will never be vaguely approached.) Lindsey’s comeback/swan song is one of this year’s biggest sports stories. Justifiably so. How she fares over the season, we’ll see. Healthy and running full schedule, no DNFs, she’s in the running for EOS T8 both Speed disciplines. On paper she could podium, sure, but keeping pace with hungry folks ten plus years younger will be a task.

    Lindsey Vonn

Oh Ester, my X Factor (22 July 2023), whereto wilt thou ski? From what I read, our most innately/insanely talented athlete will keep snowboarding in sharp focus this season, gunning for a third consecutive Parallel GS Olympic gold. This precludes running DH at Cortina; she intends to hit Super G, though. As for WAWC, she was EOS DH 8^th last season: 3d, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, 12^th, and DNS. 183 points for five finishes; 6 behind Breezy and 47 from Macuga’s 4^th place. Not bad for exercising what I’ll call casual excellence. I really can’t figure Ester out…though it’s none of my business. She inhabits a unique dimension which suits her well, I hope. With four big speed guns out, Ledecka should cruise EOS DH T4. If she wants to. As for SG, she ran seven of nine races last year, I imagine because of snowboard conflict. A 6^th and 2x7th, rest out of T10; no DNFs. She ranked 16^th in the discipline her electrifying Beijing gold stupefied the sporting world. Ester, be there again with us!! Hit WAWC as hard as you can. Prosim.

  Ester Ledecka

   Emma Aicher, a budding 4-discipline Wunderkind, has run full WAWC schedules the past two seasons. She has two wins: one each in DH and SG, both last season. She also has a 2^nd (DH) and a 3d (SL). Additional T10: 7xSL; 4xSG; 1xDH. Best GS is 4xT20. Emma turned 22 about a month ago. Judging from her finish line energy and perky IG vibe, she’s enjoying quick ascension into WAWC’s upper-tier publicity. Or at least, she’s engaging it.

    Aicher has a lot invested for her success, and heavy expectations. She wears a Red Bull helmet, rips on Head skis/boots, and may have Audi in her court as well. Aside from Lena Duerr, Emma’s the only German in the Overall top 50 standings so far. Last season, Lena finished 13^th Overall, Emma 15^th, then down to 38^th for Germany’s next athlete. Emma Aicher is Germany’s most consistently visible woman alpine ski racer, by far. The country’s highest-profile WAWC racer since Vicky Rebensburg retired five years ago. It can’t be easy.

  Until this first Speed weekend ends, we won’t know how many WAWC racers are competing in three or more disciplines. I’ll reckon baring injury perhaps a dozen will run three for the entire season. And I’d be surprised if more than four go whole-hog, as Emma is committed to. As I mentioned in Overall Pre-season post, for those who follow ski racing closely, Aicher’s season will be more scrutinized than even Vonn’s or Shiffrin’s. Emma is laying out more, has more at stake, than almost anyone else on the tour…IMO.

     Emma Aicher

Three more speed racers and I’ll shut up.

    Romane Miradoli’s intriguing talent has endured two ACL injuries—December 2020 and March 2023. EOS SG 9^th for 2022, finishing the season with a flourish—6^th, 1^st, 5^th. Next year a 3d, 7^th, and 5^th in the first five SGs had her right in the hunt, then the second ACL. 2024 had a 3d, 4^th, and 9^th and 2x12th top scores as she clawed back for EOS SG 12^th. Last season’s SG featured 3d, 5^th, 3xT10; the rest T21 and a single DNF. EOS SG 9^th.

    I think Miradoli will have a strong 2025-26 Super G. She has DH chops too, with 8xT10 including a 5^th. She’s 31; 173 WAWC starts and 131 Europa Cup push-offs. A savvy vet. Romane exudes French flair, that easy elegant je ne sais quoi. In March we’ll know. I think she’ll EOS SG T5, and DH T15.

  Romane Miradoli

   Mirjam Puchner has 161 WAWC starts, has always been competitive. 2xEOS DH 5^th 2022 and 2023; excelled in 2024, finishing EOS 7^th in DH and SG. A bad tib/fib fracture February 2017 is the worst injury I see, but it’s intimated she’s had other issues. Last season Puchner was EOS DH 14^th and SG 19^th. I think she’ll be back T10 in DH.

Mirjam Puchner

Ariane Raedler’s due for a career-best season, I think. EOS SG 10^th last campaign, with a 3d and 4xT8. A 24^th and DNF were only big missteps. With four of the EOS SG racers above her out this season, Ariane’s prospects have (sadly) improved. She's overcome several knee injuries. Here’s hoping she sails fast, clean, safe.

Airane Raedler