Industry News
It was an incredible season opener at Sölden, Austria, today, October 26, which saw Italy’s Federica Brignone win in the women’s Giant Slalom. After almost 7 months’ break, the world’s skiing elite is back for the 2024-25 season, and the Stifel U.S. Ski Team was in great form, with four athletes finishing in the top 11.
The day started with the surprise news that Lara Gut-Behrami was withdrawing from the race. After course inspection, the Swiss ski racer said she was not feeling 100% and pulled out of the race. She was having some issues with her knee and lacked the confidence to compete, so she realized it was unsafe for her to race. It was a hard decision for the Swiss skier, who had to wipe away tears when she shared her decision to pull out.
Run 1
First out of the gate for Run 1 was Mikaela Shiffrin in bib 1. It’s a tricky bib, as you have no yardstick to see if your time is good. Shiffrin looked good. She looked fast and in her element, but was it a fast time? The second runner would show. Bib 2 was Alice Robinson from New Zealand, who was faster than Shiffrin in the top section. On the top third section, she eeked out 0.4 seconds on Shiffrin, but then on the steeper mid-section, she gave back some of that. She was still ahead of Shiffrin but lost some speed on the bottom section due to minor mistakes and finished 0.22 seconds behind the American.
Next up in bib 3 was Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund, who looked strong but also could not beatShiffrin’s time and skied into third place behind Robinson and Shiffrin. Bib 4 was Gut-Behrami, who was not starting, so the order skipped ahead to Bib 5, Federica Brignone. Brignone looked wild and fast on the top, but some minor mistakes cost her some milliseconds, and the Italian skied into third ahead of Stjernesund. In bib six was her teammate Marta Bassino, who won the 2020-21 Giant Slalom Crystal Globe, but she could not get near Shiffrin’s time for Run 1. Sweden’s Sara Hector in bib 7 also finished more than a second and a half behind the American, and with that, the top seven ranked skiers had gone, and Shiffrin still set in the lead. The crowd was settling in for an uneventful remainder of Run 1.
Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan in bib 8 squeezed into sixth ahead of Hector by 0.14 seconds but was relegated to seventh by Austria’s Stephanie Brunner in bib 9. The subsequent skiers lined up in the results almost exactly in the starting order with barely any surprises. The Austrians looked particularly weak on their home ground, and their best Giant Slalom skier, Julia Scheib, made a big mistake, nearly missing a gate, costing her a whole second and a half, relegating her into what was ultimately 14th place on Run 1.
Nina O’Brien, in bib 28, skied an aggressive line, going down seemingly without any fear, as if the memories of her two leg fractures in the last two years had been wiped from her mind. She made a mistake on the steep section, which cost her some time, but luckily, she recovered and finished in the 21st, awarding her a second run. O’Brien had fractured her leg last season during training in New Zealand, which was supposed to be her comeback season from the shocking multiple fractures she had suffered in the 2022 Winter Olympics. After two tough years for the Burke Mountain Academy graduate, it was an incredible comeback by the 26-year-old.
After bib 30, many TV feeds cut from the top-ranked skiers to interviews, but several skiers with higher bib numbers fought their way into the top 30, which qualify for a second run. In Giant Slalom, the combined time of two runs counts, and only the fastest 30 skiers qualify for Run 2. The weather was deteriorating, with fog taking visibility and rain falling, making it harder for each subsequent later starter to break into the top 30. However, five skiers managed that feat. The list starts with Germany’s Lena Dürr in bib 31, who is a top-ranked Slalom skier but has not broken into the Giant Slalom top 30. She tied with Austrian Scheib for 14th place. Dürr’s teammate Fabiana Dorigo in bib 43 also managed to qualify in spot 30 for Run 2, marking the first time two Germans qualified in Giant Slalom for the second run in more than a decade. Likewise, Canada’s Cassidy Gray in bib 32 was squeezed into qualification in 24th place, and Sweden’s Estelle Alphand, with bib 49, qualified in 25th place. However, a special shoutout and legend of the day goes to U.S. ski racer Katie Hensien, who put down an amazing Run 1 after coming back from an ACL injury last season. Hensien, with bib 47, skied into 17th place, moving up 30 ranks and thus qualifying for Run 2.
“I felt good. Technically, especially, my skiing was quite strong. But maybe some spots that were conservative. I think some athletes are only slower because they made a bigger mistake. But I didn’t have a big mistake, but I have some sections that I would like to be a bit more aggressive on the second run, but I think especially the pitch and coming off the pitch was good.”— Mikaela Shiffrin in an interview with SRF after Run 1
RUN 2
Run 2 was greeted with sunny skies and much better visibility. The skiers that qualified for Run 2 start in reverse order, meaning the first starter was Fabiana Dorigo who had qualified in 30th place, marking the first time in her career. The German put down a fantastic second run which saw her finish in what was ultimately 24th place, earning her the first World Cup FIS points of her career. Canada’s Cassidy Gray unfortunately recorded a DNF on her second run.
10th skier Nina O’Brien went into the second run with massive aggression, which paid off in spades, shooting her into the lead 1.73 seconds ahead of the ninth skier Asja Zenere from Italy. Such a massive lead would be hard to beat, and O’Brien held on to her leadership position until her teammate Katie Hensien started as the 13th starter of Run 2.
Hensien backed up her first fantastic run with another powerful run, catapulting her into the lead by 0.32 seconds. Her fantastic combined time was only beaten by Austria’s Julia Scheib, who had made some unfortunate mistakes on her first run but made up for it on Run 2. Scheib eeked out a 0.03-second lead on Hensien, catapulting her into first. But Scheib knew there were 14 more skiers to come, and she would have to surrender her position in the leader’s seat soon. Scheib was looking teary whenever the camera panned to the leader’s seat in the finish area, possibly reflecting on her mistake from Run 1 and what could have been. But Scheib held on to the lead as skier after skier failed to beat her combined time.
Eighth last start was Paula Moltzan, who could not beat her teammates and finished almost half a second behind Katie Hensien. Scheib, who had looked so sad in the leader’s seat, was starting to look happier and happier with every skier who failed to unseat her. Ultimately, it was down to the last three skiers, and Scheib’s tears turned into a tiny smile – was a podium possible after coming 14th on run 1?
The third last skier was Federica Brignone, who finally unseated Scheib by more than a second. The lead of the Italian ski racer almost seemed impossible after more than 10 skiers failed to beat Scheib’s combined time. Scheib’s tiny smile wobbled as Robinson and Shiffrin were yet to come, and she was half expecting them to smash her time by equally big margins.
Second last skier was Alice Robinson, and the Kiwi battled for a repeat of her victory as a 17-year-old in Sölden, but her pole got caught, and it cost valuable milliseconds to readjust, and Robinson failed to beat Brignone by only 0.17 seconds.
Shiffrin, as the winner of Run 1, was last to compete, and it briefly felt like you could hear a pin drop when she entered the starting gate before the crowd erupted when she burst out of the gates. She only had 0.22 second-lead from run 1 on Robinson and 0.40 on Brignone so had to maintain the momentum all the way down the eroding piste. Shiffrin looked smooth and extended her lead on the top section but then lost time on the midsection. Shiffrin battled but could not carry the speed all the way to the bottom, and ultimately, Shiffrin skied into fifth place behind teammate Katie Hensien in fourth. Julia Scheib’s smile grew as the Austrian skier realized she had just claimed her first individual career World Cup podium.
It marks Brignone’s second victory in Sölden and Alice Robinson’s 10th career podium. “It’s super exciting to start the year off with a podium. I’ve been feeling pretty good coming into this race, so it felt like the summer training was good, and the physical shape was good. It’s always nerve-racking when you come into a new year,” 22-year-old Robinson said after the race. Federica Brignone became the oldest woman to ever win a FIS Alpine World Cup podium, aged 34 years. The previous record was held by Elisabeth Görgl from Austria, who won a super-G in 2014 at age 33.
The race weekend in Sölden continues with the men’s Giant Slalom on Sunday, October 27.
