Sawt Falasteen - Ledecka finds perfect winning remedy for Olympic fatigue

The 26-year-old -- Olympic snowboard champion in 2018 and 2022 and super-G gold medallist in 2018 -- was 0.21sec faster than Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel. Cornelia Huetter of Austria finished third, 0.42sec adrift of the winner.

It was Ledecka's first win of the World Cup campaign. She had only one previous podium finish this term.

"My last race here I ended up in the netting," said Ledecka.

"I am delighted to have finished this time.

"I am tired after the Olympics, I did not have terrific sensations this morning, but the course is so good that one could flourish on it."

The race favourites failed to fire.

Italy's 2018 Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia finished in 12th spot, more than a second off the pace.

However, she retains the lead in the World Cup downhill standings with a 65 point advantage over Switzerland's Corinne Suter -- who in Beijing denied Goggia a second successive downhill Olympic title.

American star Mikaela Shiffrin is not competing but retains the lead in the overall World Cup standings, by 15 points over Slovakia's defending champion Petra Vlhova, who was 29th in the downhill.

The skiers get to do it all over again on Sunday in a second downhill.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST