Part 1 | Direct hits & errors: A look back at the 7 ski predictions

Sofia Goggia wins Olympic gold, Karoline Pichler gets her Olympic ticket and Mikaela Shiffrin breaks the Vonn record. The SportNews editorial team claimed this and much more at the beginning of the ski season. Now she's putting herself through the process.

1. Shiffrin breaks the Vonn record Before the season, the all-time record holder for World Cup victories, Lindsey Vonn, and her designated successor Mikaela Shiffrin were separated by 13 successes. Given her athletic appearance, it seemed entirely possible that the 27-year-old would break this record. As it now turns out, we were exaggerating: Shiffrin “only” won five races, now has 74 World Cup victories and therefore has to be patient. However, the experts agree that the American will break the Vonn record (82 successes) in the near future unless she decides to retire early à la Marcel Hirscher. However, there is nothing to indicate this.

2. Goggia achieves the gold double

In contrast to the Shiffrin forecast, we missed the target by a much narrower margin. The wild Italian recently dominated the downhill sport like Lindsey Vonn once did and therefore seemed destined for a second Olympic victory in a row - even though she was coming back from an injury she sustained shortly before the home World Championships in Cortina in 2021. And so dominator Goggia won the first three downhill runs last winter before she fell heavily in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee and Cortina. With a badly damaged knee, she went to the Olympic Games in Beijing, where she won the silver medal, which shone like gold due to her serious injury.

Petra Vlhova won. © Pentaphoto

3. Vlhova has to take a back seat This forecast had two meanings: On the one hand, we did not believe that the overall World Cup winner from the previous season could defend her title, but on the other hand, we were convinced that the Slovakian would also have to make compromises in terms of victories. If the first of the two theses was true, the second was not true: Vlhova won the World Cup six times, also took the slalom Olympic victory and also won the small ball in the discipline in question. The 26-year-old survived the turbulent coaching change last summer without any impact on her sporting work, silenced her critics once again and proved that she is a special phenomenon.

4. Nicol Delago celebrates his first victory Admittedly, we had doubts about this. Because the 26-year-old from Wolkenstein has shown in recent years that she is always good for a surprise, we believed in her first victory in the World Cup. Knowing full well that it would have been a sensation, especially since she was sidelined by a torn Achilles tendon in the previous season. At first it looked as if Delago was back to his old self, as the winter in Lake Louise started with an eighth place. However, the woman from Val Gardena then had more trouble than she had hoped for, did not achieve another top 10 place during the rest of the season and also missed the World Cup finals in both disciplines. In a comeback season, all of this is all too understandable.

Zrinka Ljutic has a great future ahead of her. © ANSA / URS FLUEELER

5. Croatian teen rides into the spotlight For a long time we feared that we were doing Zrinka Ljutic an injustice by praising the 18-year-old too early. In the last race of the season, at the slalom in Courchevel, the Croatian gave a taste of her huge talent. Ljutic, who is the current junior world champion and was only able to start because of that, sensationally achieved fifth place. The youngster had only collected points once in the previous twelve World Cup starts. Although Ljutic did not consistently finish in the top 15 as predicted, many eyes will be on her next season. Not least because of the incredible race in Courchevel.

6. Pichler buys his Olympic ticket Karoline Pichler has had by far the best World Cup season of her career, which was hampered by injuries. She collected World Cup points a total of eight times, the highlight being a 13th place in the Super-G in St. Moritz. However, it wasn't enough to get a ticket to the Olympics. The reason: in the giant slalom, of all things, Pichler's strongest discipline, things didn't go well. She only landed in the top 30 once. And because the Azzurre are the strongest team in the world in the speed races, the 27-year-old was denied her first Olympic participation. As we all know, what is not yet can still become. Maybe at next year's World Cup in Courchevel and Meribel.

7. Switzerland bakes smaller rolls Convinced that the Swiss ski women would have to line up behind the Azzurre in the Nations Cup, we made this claim. In the end, however, things turned out differently. Not Switzerland, not Italy, but Austria grabbed the victory. The basis for this is the breadth in the ÖSV, which exceeds that in all other countries. However, the injuries to Sofia Goggia and Laura Pirovano, which resulted in hundreds of points being lost, as well as the horrendous performance of Italy's slalom women also played a role. For the Swiss, however, Wendy Holdener and Lara Gut-Behrami fell short of expectations, mind you, in the World Cup.

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Part 1 | Direct hits & errors: A look back at the 7 ski predictions

Before the start of the last ski season, SportNews was so daring and made seven predictions for the women's and men's World Cups. Now the time has come to check how well we actually managed to look into the crystal ball. Our two-part series begins with the ladies.

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