World champion Corinne Suter of Switzerland claimed victory in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen downhill ©Getty Images

World champion Corinne Suter of Switzerland claimed victory in the last downhill race before the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games next week.

Suter triumphed in the women's downhill at the Alpine Ski World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany after clocking a time of 1min 40.74sec.

The Swiss led a one-two for her nation as Jasmine Flury was second, 0.51sec behind.

Third place went to Austria's Cornelia Hütter, who was a further 0.27 adrift.

Victory for Suter saw her signal intentions with the Winter Olympics in Beijing fast approaching, although several top skiers, including American overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin and Slovakia's Petra Vlhová, skipped the event to focus on the upcoming Games.

Only two of the top 10 athletes on the overall standings, the Italian duo of Federica Brignone and Elena Curtoni, raced at the German venue today.

Suter is second in the race for the downhill crystal globe but still trails the injured Olympic champion Sofia Goggia by 69 points.

Goggia had been the favourite to retain her Olympic crown at Beijing 2022, which opens on Friday (February 4), but the injury has put the Italian's participation at the Games in doubt.

The World Cup at Garmisch-Partenkirchen concludes with a super-G tomorrow, before a break in the season for the 2022 Winter Olympics.