0.01, then 0.01. Laura Pirovano won the Val di Fassa downhill on Friday in 1:21.40, a hundredth of a second ahead of Emma Aicher. On Saturday she won again, in 1:20.91, a hundredth ahead of Cornelia Hütter. They were the first two World Cup podiums of her career, and both of them were wins.
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time / Gap — downhill, 6 March |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laura PirovanoITA | ITA | 1:21.40 |
| 2 | Emma AicherGER | GER | +0.01 |
| 3 | Breezy JohnsonUSA | USA | n/a |
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time / Gap — downhill, 7 March |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laura PirovanoITA | ITA | 1:20.91 |
| 2 | Cornelia HütterAUT | AUT | +0.01 |
| 3 | Corinne SuterSUI | SUI | n/a |
A hundredth, twice
A hundredth of a second is the smallest margin the sport records. Two of the 73 World Cup races held in 2025/26 were decided by it in a women’s downhill, on the same hill, on consecutive days, by the same skier. The only other race that close all winter was the men’s slalom at Kranjska Gora the following day.
Pirovano is 28 and from Trentino; Val di Fassa is home snow. She had been inside the top ten in each of her first six races of the winter, was fifth in the Olympic super-G and sixth in the Olympic downhill, and had never finished higher than sixth in a World Cup speed race. The archive puts her first win in her 90th race before a first win on the FIS count; FIS reported the first podium as coming in her 125th World Cup start. Her own summary: it was more than a dream, because she had not dreamed about it.
What the two hundredths moved
Lindsey Vonn had led the downhill standings on 400 points since the Olympic break, from a hospital bed. Aicher had cut it to 94 by Soldeu. Pirovano’s two wins took the lead off Vonn outright and put Pirovano in the red bib with one race to go, 28 points ahead of Aicher.
Elena Curtoni won the Val di Fassa super-G on Sunday at 35, with Kajsa Vickhoff Lie second and Asja Zenere taking her first World Cup podium. Three Italian wins in three days on an Italian hill, from two winners.
The globe, two weeks later
Pirovano won the final downhill at the Kvitfjell finals on 21 March by 0.15 from Breezy Johnson, with Kira Weidle-Winkelmann third. Aicher was fifth. Three wins in three downhills, the crystal globe by 83 points, and a career that went from no podiums to a discipline title in fifteen days.
Numbers
- 0.01: both Val di Fassa margins.
- 3: her career World Cup wins, all in 2025/26, and all three of her career podiums.
- 3: consecutive downhill wins, the longest streak of the women’s season.
- 83: her final margin over Aicher in the downhill standings.