Soelden, Austria – Despite making a huge mistake on the steeps, Switzerland’s Lara Gut sealed her first World Cup GS victory in the Soelden giant slalom on Saturday to kick off the 2014 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup Season. Slalom World Champion Mikaela Shiffrin, of Eagle, Colo., led the U.S. women in the season opener and snagged sixth, her career-best World Cup giant slalom result.
Gut put on an impressive show and won by a .84-second margin despite her mistake, finishing ahead of Austrian’s Kathrin Zettel and Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg (+1.28).
“It’s the first race of the season and there’s already a win, it’s amazing,” said a pleased Gut. “I’m pretty happy to bring a giant slalom victory back to Switzerland. It’s a really nice feeling.”
Shiffrin’s sixth-place result matched her finish in World Championships GS. Her previous best World Cup GS finish was eighth. She produced a fearless first run and sat fifth going into the final where she laid down a strong performance on the tough steep section but lost significant time on the flat gliding section coming into the finish.
“Of course I’m hungry for more. But those girls skied really well out there today so I enjoyed watching some good skiing and I felt like I skied well myself,” said Shiffrin. “I just feel like the sky is the limit and my GS is a lot better than last year. It’s tough when you’re only good in one event and you’re skiing two. You just want to improve in both. My biggest goal this year is to keep my slalom but improve my GS so that it can hopefully match my slalom. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Olympic giant slalom Champion Julia Mancuso, of Olympic Valley, Calif., finished 27th. Shiffrin and Mancuso were the only U.S. women to ski the final run.
“I think everything is going in the right direction, I’ve had good days training. Yeah, I learned it’s really important to be 100-percent committed on this steep hill,” Mancuso admitted. “Second run was better in sections. I would rather have fast sections and make mistakes than the first run when it mostly just slow. Soelden is always difficult and there are always big time differences, so I think it’ll be exciting to watch the best girls come down and rip it.”
Marie-Michèle Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, Quebec, earned a 10th-place finish for Canada. The 24-year-old produced two attacking runs – including the fifth-fastest second run of the day – to secure a solid result in the hard-fought race that took place in near-perfect early season conditions.
“Overall I’m really happy to start the season like that – attacking,” said Gagnon, who clocked a two-run combined time of two minutes, 27.40 seconds. “Especially in the first run, I made quite a few mistakes but I was still charging. I’m really happy with 10th.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Alpine World Cup
Soelden, Austria – October 26, 2013
Women’s Giant Slalom
| Rank | Bib | Name | Run 1 | Run 2 | Tot. Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
 GUT Lara |
1:09.26 | 1:15.90 | 2:25.16 |
| 2 | 4 |
 ZETTEL Kathrin |
1:10.33 | 1:15.67 | 2:26.00 |
| 3 | 2 |
 REBENSBURG Viktoria |
1:10.03 | 1:16.41 | 2:26.44 |
| 4 | 1 |
FENNINGER Anna |
1:10.09 | 1:16.48 | 2:26.57 |
| 5 | 37 |
 WEIRATHER Tina |
1:11.50 | 1:15.24 | 2:26.74 |
| 6 | 15 |
 SHIFFRIN Mikaela |
1:10.65 | 1:16.13 | 2:26.78 |
| 7 | 24 |
 PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria |
1:11.51 | 1:15.56 | 2:27.07 |
| 8 | 8 |
LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica |
1:11.50 | 1:15.83 | 2:27.33 |
| 9 | 13 |
GISIN Dominique |
1:12.38 | 1:14.99 | 2:27.37 |
| 10 | 20 |
 GAGNON Marie-Michele |
1:12.20 | 1:15.20 | 2:27.40 |