SEMERING, Austria (AP) — Olympic champion Sara Hector took the lead in the women’s World Cup giant slalom on Saturday after race leader Alice Robinson skied out.
Hector, competing for her first win in almost a year, finished 0.02 seconds ahead of Austria’s Julia Scheib and 0.13 seconds ahead of Italian-born Lara Korturi, who started for Albania.
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“It was not easy, there was no rhythm to the course. I was just trying to provide gas and ski cleanly,” Hector told Austrian television.
Hector has seven career World Cup wins, all in giant slalom, but the Swedish skier has not won since winning the race in Slovenia on the first weekend of January.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the race in Semmering near the capital Vienna four times between 2012 and 2022, was one of the fastest on the grid but appeared to back off after hitting some bumps and almost sliding out. The American star ended up in eighth place with 1.16 seconds remaining in the second leg later on Saturday.
Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic champion, holds the women’s World Cup record with 22 GS wins but has not finished on the giant slalom podium in the last nine races, the longest streak of her career since going without a top-three finish in the first 15 GS races of the 2010-11 season.
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Shiffrin, who has dominated the slalom with four wins this season, is still working her way back to form in the GS after suffering a deep puncture wound to her side and severe trauma to her oblique muscles in a nasty crash at a race in Killington, Vermont, more than a year ago.
Robinson, a two-time champion this season, was fastest in the middle before the New Zealand racer lost his balance and slid off the track on the left turn.
“I was unlucky to lose my balance and press in a bad spot and ended up flat on my face,” Robinson said. “I’m really disappointed not to get any points.”
When the game began, Robinson led Scheib by 12 points in the disciplinary standings. The Austrian skier has also won twice, including the most recent GS race three weeks ago in Tremblant, Quebec.
Shiffrin’s teammate Nina O’Brien suffered a nasty-looking crash after a strong start, but the American appeared uninjured.
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AP Skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
