The women's downhill of Alpine Skiing 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 21 February 2018 in the Jeongseon Alpine Centre. With 39 athletes competing, the event was won by Sofia Goggia from Italy, with Ragnhild Mowinckel from Norway taking the silver medal and Lindsey Vonn from USA taking bronze.
Format[]
The competition exists out of a single race. The competitor with the fastest time without missing any of the gates is the winner.
Preview[]
Thirty-nine athletes qualified for the event with Lindsey Vonn, the only previous Olympic champion, as the favorite for the title. Challengers included Lara Gut, who won the bronze medal in the previous edition, Sofia Goggia, as number one in the yearly rankings, and Tina Weirather, who won the bronze medal in the Super-G a couple of days before. Other medal contenders included Cornelia Huetter, Stephanie Venier, Michelle Gisin, Viktoria Rebensburg, Nicole Schmidhofer and Ragnhild Mowinckel.
Elvedina Muzaferija from Bosnia and Herzegovina was the youngest competitor and the only skier younger than 20 years old. Kim Vanreusel had just turned 20, but still more than a year younger than Valerie Grenier, Lisa Hoernblad, and Kira Weidle, who were also yet to turn 22. On the other side, Lindsey Vonn was the most experienced skier, having participated at Salt Lake City 2002 when she was 18 years old. Nadia Fanchini was almost two years younger, followed by Laurenne Ross and Marusa Ferk by another two years. However, with Vonn having had three previous Olympic experiences since 2002, missing 2014, she had to share the title of most Olympic appearances with Noelle Barahona and Alexandra Coletti, both of whom had been competing consistently since Torino 2006. Both of the reigning Olympic champions were not present at this competition, but Lara Gut won the bronze medal four years prior. Lindsey Vonn won the event in 2010.
Results[]
The first skier to go was Cornelia Huetter, and despite a reasonable run, she made a big mistake right before the last gate, dropping down from 9th to 13th. With Tina Weirather being the first competitor to race sub-1:40.00, she set a challenging time for others. Challenger Sofia Goggia compensated for a slow start, racing to the fastest time at the time, awaiting the times of several other medal contenders. Lindsey Vonn wasn't able to beat her time, although she did race to a better time than Weirather, settling in second place. Another favorite, Lara Gut, missed a gate and was forced to retire. Out of the remaining medal contenders, Ragnhild Mowinckel was able to lose 0.1 seconds on Goggia, finishing second, and Michelle Gisin finished eighth. American Alice McKennis finished fifth, right before 0.05 seconds in front of Corinne Suter, and 0.1 seconds before Breezy Johnson.
Sofia Goggia won her first Olympic medal at her Olympic debut, after 11th places at the super-G and the giant slalom. Ragnhild won a second silver medal, after she received one at the giant slalom three days earlier. Lindsey Vonn won her third Olympic medal, after winning the downhill event in 2010 and the super-G event that same year. Tina Weirather, who was the bronze medalist of the super-G the day before the downhill event just missed out on a medal, just like the specialists Alice McKennis, Corinne Cuter, and Breezy Johnson.
| Result | Athlete | Nationality | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Sofia Goggia | Italy | 1:39.22 |
 |
Ragnhild Mowinckel | Norway | 1:39.31 |
 |
Lindsey Vonn | United States | 1:39.69 |
| 4 | Tina Weirather | Liechtenstein | 1:39.85 |
| 5 | Alice McKennis | United States | 1:40.24 |
| 6 | Corinne Suter | Switzerland | 1:40.29 |
| 7 | Breezy Johnson | United States | 1:40.34 |
| 8 | Michelle Gisin | Switzerland | 1:40.55 |
| 9 | Viktoria Rebensburg | Germany | 1:40.64 |
| 10 | Ramona Siebenhofer | Austria | 1:40.98 |
| 11 | Kira Weidle | Germany | 1:41.01 |
| 12 | Nicole Schmidhofer | Austria | 1:41.02 |
| 13 | Tiffany Gauthier | France | 1:41.04 |
| 13 | Cornelia Huetter | Austria | 1:41.04 |
| 15 | Laurenne Ross | United States | 1:41.10 |
| 16 | Jennifer Piot | France | 1:41.17 |
| 17 | Lisa Hoernblad | Sweden | 1:41.63 |
| 18 | Romane Miradoli | France | 1:41.64 |
| 19 | Marusa Ferk | Slovenia | 1:42.00 |
| 20 | Greta Small | Australia | 1:42.07 |
| 21 | Valerie Grenier | Canada | 1:42.13 |
| 22 | Laura Gauche | France | 1:42.29 |
| 23 | Roni Remme | Canada | 1:42.80 |
| 24 | Maryna Gasienica-Daniel | Poland | 1:43.30 |
| 25 | Noelle Barahona | Chile | 1:44.24 |
| 26 | Katerina Paulathova | Czech Republic | 1:44.69 |
| 27 | Alexandra Coletti | Monaco | 1:45.04 |
| 28 | Ania Monica Caill | Romania | 1:45.06 |
| 29 | Barbara Kantorova | Slovakia | 1:45.99 |
| 30 | Kim Vanreusel | Belgium | 1:46.51 |
| 31 | Elvedina Muzaferija | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1:46.80 |
| - | Lara Gut | Switzerland | DNF |
| - | Stephanie Venier | Austria | DNF |
| - | Nadia Fanchini | Italy | DNF |
| - | Federica Brignone | Italy | DNF |
| - | Jasmine Flury | Switzerland | DNF |
| - | Nicol Delago | Italy | DNF |
| - | Petra Vlhova | Slovakia | DNF |
| - | Candace Crawford | Canada | DNF |
| 2018 Winter Olympic Games | |
|---|---|
| Alpine Skiing 2018 | |
| ← 2014 | 2022 → |
| Men | Women |
| Downhill | Downhill |
| Super-G | Super-G |
| Giant Slalom | Giant Slalom |
| Slalom | Slalom |
| Alpine Combined | Alpine Combined |
| Mixed | |
| Team | |