Federica Brignone takes advantage of Mikaela Shiffrin’s mistakes to win the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2024–2025 giant slalom
Shiffrin appeared to be headed for her 98th World Cup victory, but she finished seventh in the opening race of the new season due to errors on the bottom half of her second run.
On Saturday, October 26, Federica Brignone won the first race of the 2024/25 Alpine Skiing FIS World Cup at Sölden, Austria.
In the giant slalom competition, Mikaela Shiffrin led after the first run and appeared to be headed for her 98th World Cup victory, but she fell to fifth place due to errors in the bottom part of the second run.
Second place went to Alice Robinson, while third place went to local skier Julia Scheib, who had risen from 14th place during the first run to earn her maiden World Cup podium.
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Shiffrin had an opportunity to take an early lead over her primary competitors because Petra Vlhova was still recovering from a chronic knee ailment and Lara Gut-Behrami, the current giant slalom and overall World Cup champion, pulled out following the warm-up.
Two-time Olympic gold medallist Shiffrin started first and finished the course in 1:05.82 after a fantastic run down the bottom half. Her closest rival, Robinson, who was wearing start bib two, was 0.22 behind her.
The main forces behind the second run were Scheib and Katie Hensien of the USA. Only Scheib was able to pass Hensien, who was in 17th place on the first run, before the top three started their last descents.
Despite being over a second slower than the two on her second run, 2020 overall World Cup winner Brignone of Italy eventually overtook them with a strong bottom section that put her ahead by more than a second.
The New Zealander finished 0.17 behind Robinson, who had gained time on the Italian at the top of the race but, like many of the later starters, had trouble in the second part.
Shiffrin held a sizable lead in the first half, but as time drained away in the second half, she finished 1.21 seconds behind her teammate Hensien in fifth place**,** as Brignone won her 28th World Cup. Out of the 28 skiers who finished the second run, Shiffrin was the second slowest.
In three weeks, the women will play in the World Cup again, and Vlhova will miss the Levi slalom in Finland on November 16.
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