Favorite: Sofia Goggia

The 30-year-old skier, Olympic champion in 2018 and victorious in four of the six winter runs, has no equivalent in the discipline where her style works wonders.

But "SuperSofia" regularly makes mistakes, a consequence of her risk-taking: injured, she had missed the 2021 Worlds in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) and had miraculously won silver for the Beijing Olympics in 2022 after a new injury.

This week, she was bruised by the death from cancer of her ex-teammate Elena Fanchini.

"We cried together, we comforted each other, we stuck together as a team. We try to draw a lot of energy from this suffering, and use it in the right way," she explained on Friday. after dominating the last official practice.

Italian Elena Fanchini during the downhill of the Sochi Olympics, February 1, 2014 © Olivier MORIN / AFP/Archives

The defender: Corinne Suter

The Swiss is starting from afar to defend her title, seeming to suffer from a concussion suffered at the end of January due to a fall in Cortina.

After considering a package for the Worlds, the quadruple world medalist finally took part in the super-G on Wednesday, finishing in a disappointing twentieth place.

The Ghost: Ilka Stuhec

The Slovenian, double downhill world champion (2017 and 2019) closed an incredible break of four years without a win, in Cortina at the end of January, after being handicapped by numerous injuries.

Slovenian Ilka Stuhec, during the super-G of the Worlds, February 8, 2023 in Méribel © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

"I still have a lot of progress to make, especially at the top of the track, I didn't have the right line, she admitted on Friday after training. But (...) I know how to put myself in race mode.

In Méribel, the 32-year-old skier, on the other hand, experienced the misadventure of seeing her mother and trainer injured in a fall on skis and having to be hospitalized in Bourg Saint Maurice.

"My mother is better, she has had surgery, she will be in the finish area on Saturday," reassured Ilka Stuhec.

If she wins, she would become a ski legend: no one has won three World titles in downhill since Austria's Annemarie Moser-Pröll in the 1970s.

The Frenchwoman: Laura Gauché

Seventh in the combined and fourteenth in the super-G of the Worlds, Gauché managed at 27 the best season of his career in downhill with in particular a seventh place in Cortina.

"I'm doing good things at the moment. I've never made a podium in the World Cup, I'm not the favorite but I place myself as an outsider for a medal," she said.

© 2023 AFP