Feb 27 (Reuters) - Switzerland's Corinne Suter won the first women's downhill after the Milano Cortina Olympics on Friday with Germany's Emma Aicher fourth in Andorra to slash Lindsey Vonn's World Cup lead to 94 points with three races remaining.
Vonn's season is over after the U.S. Alpine ski great crashed in the Olympic downhill, shattering her left leg and undergoing multiple rounds of surgery to save it. The 41-year-old has said it will take around a year for all the bones to heal.
Suter's victory in Soldeu was the 31-year-old's first podium of the season, sixth career win and the first time the 2021 downhill world champion and 2022 Olympic champion had stood on the top step since a super-G in December 2022.
The Swiss, who was only 14th at the Milano Cortina Games this month after being sidelined by injury in December, started fourth and beat Austrian Nina Ortlieb by 0.11 seconds, with Italian Sofia Goggia third. World and Olympic champion Breezy Johnson of the United States was fifth.
Italy's double 2026 Olympic gold medallist Federica Brignone decided to sit out the race, with two super-Gs coming up over the weekend, as she continues to feel pain in a leg broken last year.
"I’m living very much day by day. The end of the season is actually the part I love the most — there’s more light, a more relaxed atmosphere. I love travelling and being on the slopes," she had told reporters on Thursday.
"But if it becomes torture because I’m in too much pain, I’ll make different decisions."
Vonn, who had finished on every World Cup downhill podium this season before her accident and won twice, leads the standings with 400 points to Aicher's 306. A race win is worth 100 points.
Germany's Kira Weidle-Winkelmann, 11th on Friday, is on 256 points with Goggia on 240.
The next downhill is in Italy's Val di Fassa on March 6.
(Reporting by Alan BaldwinEditing by Toby Davis)
