By Alan Baldwin
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Sofia Goggia will be Italy's big hope of a first Alpine skiing gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympics when she races on home snow in the super-G on Thursday.
The triple Olympic medallist, whose latest was a downhill bronze on Sunday, leads the super-G World Cup standings and is a four-times World Cup winner on the Olimpia delle Tofane slope in downhill.
"It's my favourite course - it's intense and free," she said on arrival last week.
Federica
Brignone, who suffered multiple leg fractures and a torn anterior cruciate ligament last April, could also be a contender in a field without Lindsey Vonn after the U.S. great broke a leg in the downhill.
New Zealander Alice Robinson, second in the World Cup standings, can become the first skier from the southern hemisphere to take Alpine gold while German all-rounder Emma Aicher, a super-G winner in Tarvisio last month, is chasing a third medal in three races after silvers in downhill and combined.
"I think my confidence is pretty high in super-G," said Robinson of her first race of the Games. "I know what I'm doing and I kind of ski fast and that's kind of my goal now, just to be able to pull it off."
Austria will have 2022 silver medallist Mirjam Puchner back in action along with team combined gold medallist Ariane Raedler.
Downhill champion Breezy Johnson can become the first female U.S. skier to complete the speed double at one Olympics but has played down her chances of another gold, even though her sole World Cup podium so far this season was in the discipline.
"I would not say that I'm a favourite for even a medal, definitely not a gold one," she told Reuters. "I know that I am skiing really well right now and I can do really good things but there's a lot of really competitive super-G skiers out there.
"This slope definitely feels good here. I've had really good super-Gs in the past and I just want to enjoy it and try to ski as well as I can."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin;Editing by Alison Williams)
