Saturday, November 29, was the third event day at Copper Mountain Thanksgiving race weekend, featuring the women’s Giant Slalom. There was fresh snow in the Colorado resort, resulting in a delayed race start, but which racer doesn’t love some hero snow, and the conditions at Copper on Saturday were perfect.
Run 1
The honor of opening the women’s Giant Slalom went to Sweden’s Sara Hector, who set the pace for run 1 with a time of 59.32 seconds. Second out of the gate was Albania’s Lara Colturi, who could not quite find the same pace as Hector, finishing 0.82 seconds behind the Swede in what was ultimately sixth place. Third starter, Paula Moltzan, fell even further behind, crossing the finish 1.28 seconds behind Hector in what was ultimately 16th place, while Zrinka Ljutic finished with a similar time, just 0.05 seconds ahead of the American.
Starting in bib 5, New Zealand’s Alice Robinson was the star of run 1, taking the lead and not surrendering it for the rest of the run, finishing with a time of 59.03 seconds. Rounding out the top 3 skiers for run 1 was Austria’s Julia Scheib, who had won the Giant Slalom in Sölden, Austria, skiing into third, 0.60 seconds behind Robinson and 0.31 seconds behind Hector. Only one more skier, Germany’s Lena Dürr, who is typically a Slalom specialist, managed to finish less than a second behind Robinson, qualifying for run 2 in fourth place. Thea Louise Stjernesund from Norway finished in fifth place, 1.08 seconds behind the leader, while Canada’s Valerie Grenier tied with Lara Colturi for sixth place, rounding out the fastest seven skiers of run 1.
Team USA’s Nina O’Brien qualified in 13th place, 1.48 seconds behind Robinson, while Mikaela Shiffrin crossed the finish line 1.74 seconds behind the Kiwi in 18th place. Keely Cashman and Tricia Mangan missed out on qualification, finishing 46th and 48th, respectively, while teammates Elisabeth Bocock and Kjersti Moritz—who had her World Cup debut—recorded a DNF on run 1.
Much like the men’s races, the results of run 1 were quite unusual, with many favorites falling far behind, promising for an interesting run 2 at Copper.
Run 2
Run 2 is conducted in reverse order, with only the top 30 qualifying. First out of the gates were two Swedes, Hanna Aronsson Elfman, followed by Estelle Alphand. Aronson Elfman set the pace with 59.06 seconds, while Alphand’s time for run 2 was 0.05 seconds behind but she took the lead for the combined time thanks to her time advantage from run 1. Fourth skier Franziska Gritsch snatched the lead from Alphand by 0.05 seconds and defended it against her Austrian teammates starting after her. It was Italy’s speed queen, Sofia Goggia, who snatched the lead from Gritsch, finishing 0.21 seconds ahead of the Austrian.
Goggia hung on to the leader’s seat in the finish area for four skiers until Mikaela Shiffrin came along. The 30-year-old snatched the lead with a strong run, pushing herself into the lead by 0.30 seconds and a combined time of 2:00.99 minutes. Shiffrin defended her lead for three skiers until Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic undercut her time by more than half a second. It was the new fastest time for run 2. Failing to unseat Shiffrin was also Paula Moltzan, whose run 2 finished with a rather vicious-looking ‘gate-to-the-face’ moment that sent the American flying. We hope Moltzan is okay.
Teammate Nina O’Brien, the fastest American from run 1, looked poised to unseat Ljutic but lost speed on the last bottom section, finishing 0.29 seconds behind Ljutic but 0.24 seconds ahead of Shiffrin. Ljutic remained in the leader’s seat for another two skiers, until Switzerland’s Camille Rast pushed herself 0.14 seconds ahead of the Croatian. Rast had a breakout season last year and finished third in Gurgl last week, but there were 10 skiers still left to go.
Neither Canada’s Britt Richardson nor Poland’s Maryna Gasienia-Daniel nor Austria’s Katharina Liensberger could unseat the Swiss, and by now we were down to the fastest seven skiers from run 1. Colturi and Grenier had tied for sixth, but Colturi went first. The young Albanian who beat Rast in Gurgl to second place, put down a strong run, but it was not enough to snatch the lead, finishing behind O’Brien. Next up was the Canadian but she was bleeding time throughout the course, finishing slightly behind Colturi.
We were down to the fastest five women from run 1, and Stjernesund showed that there were still fast times possible this late on the course, recording the new fastest time for 2 with 59.88 seconds, recording a combined time of 1:59.99 minutes. Fourth skier Dürr could not match the Norwegian, but with only three skiers left, it was a guaranteed new personal best Giant Slalom result for the Slalom specialist.
Sölden’s winner Scheib was the third-last starter. A mistake on the top cost her some of her lead, but the Austrian managed to find speed on the steep section and carried it across the finish, snatching the lead by just 0.12 seconds. It was a guaranteed podium for the Austrian, but there were two left to go—seasoned Hector and young gun Alice Robinson.
Hector had a 0.31-second lead from run 1 on Scheib and put down a clean run, but the Swede could not carry her speed into the bottom section, falling behind and finishing 0.21 seconds behind Scheib. Stjernesund cheered, as it was a guaranteed podium for the Norwegian, as now there was just Robinson to go.
The Kiwi, who is known for her aggressive style, managed to squeeze out a 0.75-second lead ahead of the steep section. She attacked the steep section and extended her lead to 0.87 seconds. The crowd in Copper went wild as the Kiwi squeezed an almost 1-second lead out on Scheib, finishing in 1:58.91 minutes (and tying with Stjernesund for the fastest run 2 of the day). It was a massive day at Copper, with a great crowd and an incredible winner that showed dominance on both run 1 and run 2. It marks the fifth Giant Slalom victory for Robinson, making her the most successful ski racer of all time outside of Europe and North-America.
“It was amazing. It was definitely a day of two different runs. The first run, I felt so in control and so smooth, and the second run just felt so out of control, and I felt like I was just recovering the whole time. I was pretty shocked to see the big green light in the finish, but obviously I am so grateful. I was really not feeling that confident coming into this race, so I am really proud of myself that I just trusted my instincts and skied how I wanted. It’s like a dream.”
— Alice Robinson
The race weekend at Copper finishes tomorrow with a women’s Slalom before the women’s tech races move north to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.
