Lara Gut-Behrami claims women's giant slalom in Sölden, Mikaela Shiffrin sixth
The Beijing 2022 bronze medallist narrowly beats Federica Brignone by just 0.02 seconds on the Rettenbach glacier, with Petra Vlhova securing the third spot on the podium.
Alpine Skiing
Three-time Olympic medallist Lara Gut-Behrami kicked off the 2023/24 alpine skiing World Cup season with a win in the women's giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, on Saturday (28 October).
Federica Brignone of Italy secured second place, trailing the Swiss by a mere 0.02 seconds, after leading in the first run. Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova rounded off the podium, finishing just 0.14 seconds behind the leader.
Gut-Behrami, fourth after the first run, produced the fastest second run and now shares a record-three win on the Rettenbach glacier with Slovenia's legend Tina Maze, following victories in 2013 and 2016: "It's amazing, it was a tough day. Today I really never gave up, I made so many mistakes in both runs, but I'm happy, I'm getting older but I'm happy," said the 32-year-old after the race.
The Beijing 2022 bronze medallist in the discipline also became the third woman to claim at least one World Cup win in 13 different seasons, after Renate Götschl and Lindsey Vonn.
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Shiffrin: It's an okay place to start with
Reigning giant slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin struggled to find her pace in both runs, ultimately settling for a sixth-place finish, 1.40 seconds off the pace.
"I liked my mentality going into the second run better, a little bit more like trying for race mode. I was just not able to execute it perfectly. But having said that, I mean, the top women today, they skied just unbelievable. So I think there's a lot for everybody to learn from them and Lara especially."
The five-time overall World Cup champion takes away some positives from the race:
"It's a challenging race but it's also a good one because you can really see where your weaknesses are, where your strengths are, and you get a good direction to work for the next couple of weeks before the next GS races," she said.
"And so that ends up being really helpful. Last season I took really quite a long time to build into my top form, hopefully I get there a bit faster this season, but I feel like this is an okay place to start. It's certainly a better place for me to be starting than it was last season."
Soelden, FIS World Cup: Results of women's Giant Slalom on Saturday 28 October 2023 (Top 10)
- Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) 2:18.94
- Federica Brignone (ITA) +0.02
- Petra Vlhova (SVK) +0.14
- Sara Hector (SWE) +1.10
- Marta Bassino (ITA) +1.19
- Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) +1.40
- Valerie Grenier (CAN) +1.45
- Mina Fuerst Holtmann (NOR) +2.00
- Alice Robinson (NZL) +2.48
- Franziska Gritsch (AUT) +2.58