Corinne Suter, of Switzerland, gestures after finishing the women's downhill at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP photo)

BEIJING (AP) — The only skier to beat Sofia Goggia in a downhill over the last two seasons beat the defending Olympic champion again on Tuesday to win the gold medal in the event at the Beijing Games.

Corinne Suter, a 27-year-old Swiss skier who injured both of her legs just before the start of the season, edged Goggia by 0.16 seconds.

“It’s my biggest dream in my life, so today I don’t know what to say,” Suter said. “In the finish I wasn’t sure if it was good or not, because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side.”

Goggia hurt her left knee about a month ago but still managed to take the lead by nearly half a second when she set off shortly before Suter. She let out a lengthy roar after crossing the line and then kissed a television camera.

“I gave everything I could. I was really happy with my skiing. I felt like the speed was there in the upper part because I was really jumping a lot everywhere,” Goggia said. “I’m sorry for the last part. I felt like maybe there’d been some parts of the slope I had some wind against me, but it’s something you cannot control.

“In the end I’m happy with my result, because being here at the Olympics after my crash in Cortina was not guaranteed at all.”

Goggia has dominated the downhill in recent seasons and would have been the favorite if not for getting injured during a super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo less than a month ago. The 29-year-old Italian partially tore a ligament in her left knee and sustained a minor fracture in that leg, along with tendon damage.

Goggia had won the last eight World Cup downhills she finished, a streak that began in December 2020, when she was beaten by Suter. Suter also won the last downhill race before the Olympics.

Suter is the first woman since Lindsey Vonn to hold the Olympic and world championship titles in downhill at the same time.

Nadia Delago of Italy finished 0.57 behind Suter for bronze. She was briefly in the lead and appeared to be sobbing in disbelief after she crossed the line. She then hugged her older sister Nicol, who had finished a short time earlier.

“It’s so special that we are here together. My first Olympics with her, it’s unbelievable,” said Nadia Delago, who had never been on the podium in a World Cup race or major championship. “We help each other, and I’m so grateful that we came here together.”

Mikaela Shiffrin, who did not finish her opening runs in either of her initial two events, finished in 18th place, 2.49 behind Suter.

The race was halted for about 15 minutes after Camille Cerutti crashed. The French skier lost control after a jump and slid a long way down the slope, loudly screaming the whole time. She was taken off the mountain on a sled.

An hour before the scheduled start of the race, the wind was whipping at about 15 mph (about 25 kph), with gusts topping 25 mph (40 kph) at the top of the hill. The start was was delayed for 30 minutes because of the wind.

GOLD FOR GASSER

Anna Gasser hardly felt like the favorite in Beijing, even as the only woman to ever win an Olympic snowboarding big air contest.

The way her competition — with an average age of 21 — has been pushing the sport’s boundaries, the 30-year-old from Austria wasn’t even sure that her best would be good enough for the podium.

“This one is more emotional to me, because it’s so unexpected,” she said.

Gasser executed a massive cab 1260 on her final jump to overtake Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand and win her second straight Olympic gold medal in big air Tuesday.

Sadowski Synnott led Gasser by 0.25 points entering the third round after both landed a pair of double cork 1080s — two off-axis flips with three rotations.

Gasser was assured of at least silver when she dropped in switch for her final attempt at Big Air Shougang. She was the first woman to land a cab double cork 1260 when she did it 2019, and she did it again here, the only rider to stomp out a trick with 3 1/2 spins.

SILVER FOR GU

In a post-event interview, Eileen Gu was praised for grabbing “gold” with her final run.

“Silver,” she ever-so-politely corrected. “Don’t tease me like that.”

By the slimmest of margins, too.

The standout American-born freestyle skier who represents China finished runner-up with her last run of the Olympic women’s slopestyle contest on Tuesday. It keeps alive her quest to become the first action-sports athlete to capture three medals at the same Winter Games.

Her bid for another gold medal was thwarted by Mathilde Gremaud. The skier from Switzerland ended up taking the event by just 0.33 with a sensational second run. Kelly Sildaru of Estonia took home bronze on a bitterly cold and hazy day with the temperature hovering around minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius).

“So, so special,” Gu said of earning silver. “It really came down to the last run — again.”