SOLDEN, Austria (AP) — American Paula Moltzan broke through with her first career World Cup win while Mikaela Shiffrin finished the women's giant slalom in seventh as the Alpine ski racing season opened on Saturday.
Shiffrin led after the first run in Sölden, Austria, on the Rettenbach glacier. But her second run wasn't good enough and sent the Olympic slalom champion down to seventh.
When Shiffrin crossed the line, it was Moltzan who was left celebrating
her first World Cup win at age 32.
“It feels like a fairy tale right now, pretty unreal,” Moltzan said.
For years Moltzan has been considered the second-best technical skier on the American team behind Shiffrin.
The Minnesota native grew up idolizing Lindsey Vonn, skiing on the same hill in Minnesota where Vonn learned to race. Both of her parents were ski instructors at Buck Hill, and Moltzan moved into the elite program led by Vonn’s former coach, Erich Sailer, when she was 12.
In February, Moltzan won an Olympic bronze medal in team combined at last season’s Milan Cortina Games with teammate Jacqueline Wiles. A year before that, Moltzan won bronze in giant slalom at the world championships. Otherwise, her career had been marked by near misses.
Lara Colturi of Albania was second on Saturday. Germany's Emma Aicher, who last season finished second to Shiffrin in the overall title standings, was third.
Shiffrin’s sixth World Cup overall title last season equaled the women’s record set in the 1970s by Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Pröll. But Shiffrin has called this campaign an “exploration season” in which she will reduce her slalom races and focus more on giant slalom and super-G.
The 31-year-old hasn’t won a giant slalom race in nearly three years, going back to December 2023, while her last super-G victory was in 2022.
Shiffrin used to race and win in all disciplines, but she had reduced her schedule in recent years after she endured terrifying crashes in a downhill in Cortina in early 2024 and a GS in Killington 10 months later. Her 22 career victories in giant slalom remain the women’s record, as are her 73 wins in slalom and 110 wins overall.
A men's giant slalom will be held at Sölden on Sunday.
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