Industry News
With not even a week’s rest for the female technical skiers, the Giant Slalom was back on at the FIS World Cup circuit at Lienz in Austria on Thursday, December 28, 2023. Training was held on Boxing Day as well as December 27, 2023. The event at Lienz consists of a Giant-Slalom race today, Thursday, December 28, and a Slalom on Friday, December 29.
Giant Slalom races are held in two runs with the combined time counting. Only the top 30 skiers from run 1 qualify for run 2, which is run in reverse starting order, meaning the fastest skiers will go last.
Mikaela Shiffrin with bib 3 was in the lead after Run 1, followed by Sweden’s Sara Hector in second place 0.63 seconds behind the American, and Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel in third, more than a whole second behind the leader. The top five was rounded out by Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami in fourth, 1.49 seconds behind Shiffrin, and New Zealand’s Alice Robinson and Italy’s Federica Brignone who were tied for fifth place, 1.63 seconds behind Shiffrin.
Run 2 was as always an exciting nail-biter. 14th-placed Julia Scheib had put down an incredible second run, catapulting herself into first with what was ultimately the second-fastest run 2 of the day. The 25-year-old Austrian sat in the victor’s seat watching top skier after skier failing to best her time. Neither U.S. skier Paula Moltzan nor Italy’s Sofia Goggia could best her time but then came Canadian Valerie Grenier, who shot into the lead from her eighth place, 0.17 seconds ahead of Scheib. It is Grenier’s first top-10 result in Lienz.
With the seven fastest women still to go, anything was still possible, but France’s Clara Direz, who had finished run 1 in seventh place, and had placed fourth and tenth in Killington, unfortunately skidded too low in the narrow mid-section, ending the race with a DNF. Equal fifth-placed Robinson and Brignone were up next. Brignone went first and shot out of the gates with her typical aggressive style. With only 0.08 seconds advantage on Grenier from run 1 she had to push, but the Italian was in full attack mode and put down the fastest run of the day, shooting into the lead 0.25 seconds ahead of the Canadian. With five to go a spot on the podium was certainly not given, but Robinson could not match the pace from run 1 and finished 1.11 seconds behind Brignone.
With four skiers left, the heat was on for Lara Gut-Behrami, the current leader in the red bib. Unfortunately, the Swiss lost time on the mid-section and finished behind Scheib, outside the top five. Everyone was watching with bated breath what time the last three skiers would put down. Norway’s Mowinckel looked more cautious on run 2 and the flat light was probably not helping her confidence. The Norwegian skier finished outside the top 10.
With two skiers left, this meant Brignone had a spot on the podium. Sweden’s Sara Hector had a whole second lead on the Italian from run 1, so it was entirely possible that she could scoop the lead from Brignone, but Hector could not match the aggression of the Italian and the 2022 Olympic Champion finished 0.07 seconds behind Brignone.
Last to go was Mikaela Shiffrin, the fastest woman on the hill from run 1 and with a 1.63 second-lead on Brignone. With a lead that sizeable, American victory seemed certain, but the American lost some time on the mid-section. Shiffrin’s mother in the finish area was looking tense as she watched her daughter lose more than a second during her run, but her lead from run 1 was so enormous, that she still managed to ski into first, 0.38 seconds ahead of Brignone.
In the finish area, Shiffrin looked exhausted and maybe somewhat disappointed with her run. It was only the 17th fastest second run of the day, so definitely not her best performance, but at the end of the day, it was enough for her 92nd career victory. Her teammates AJ Hurt and Paula Moltzan finished in 11th and 16th place respectively.
“It’s really amazing to have had some good training days in the last few days. The first run was perfect, the second run,.. yah..” the American laughed in the finish area, “you have to really push in the second run. If there had been three more gates, Federica would have won it.”
