Ofterschwang, Germany – Erin Mielzynski made history on Sunday when she became the first Canadian woman since Betsy Clifford in 1971 to win a World Cup slalom race. She was joined on the podium by Jackson Hole, Wyo.’s Resi Stiegler, who marked her triumphant return to the World Cup’s elite with a second place finish. Austria’s Marlies Schild, who has dominated slalom this season, finished third.

Mielzynski, 21, from Guelph, Ontario, produced a stunning performance in deteriorating snow conditions to claim her first career World Cup victory and secure a breakthrough result for the youthful Canadian women’s technical team. Mielzynski, whose previous best World Cup results were two 13^th-place finishes in slalom – in Courchevel, France, on Dec. 18, 2011, and Arber-Zwiesel, Germany, on Feb. 4, 2011 – was fifth after the first run on Sunday and found incredible speed at the bottom of her second run to seal the win. Her teammate Marie-Michèle Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, Quebec, was fifth to tie her own career-best World Cup result.

“This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. This is more than incredible,” said Mielzynski. “It was crazy coming fifth in the first run – that hasn’t happened before. And then this? I can’t describe it!”

Mielzynski is a former water skier who won a silver medal in jump at the 2006 World Waterskiing Junior Championships before focusing full-time on alpine skiing. The Georgian Peaks Ski Club member has been part of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team since 2008 and made her Olympic debut at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, finishing 20^th in the slalom.

“My goal for today was to race like I train every single day,” Mielzynski said. “I believed I could win but I didn’t think about it during the race, do you know what I mean? Coming down with the green (leader’s) light on the second run, it took a few seconds for it to sink in. I stood in the finish box (as one of the leaders) and that was just incredible. It was crazy to see my name at the top of the standings.”

Mielzynski is the first Canadian woman to win a World Cup slalom race since Clifford won in Schruns, Austria, on Jan. 21, 1971. Judy Crawford was the last Canadian woman to podium in slalom, with her third-place result coming in Grindelwald, Switzerland, on Jan. 17, 1973. The last Canadian woman to finish in the top three in any discipline at a World Cup race was retired speed skier Emily Brydon, who was third in downhill at Lake Louise, Alta., on Dec. 5, 2009.

Another interesting statistic is that Mielzynski became the first non-Austrian to win a ladies’ World Cup slalom this season. Austria’s Marlies Schild won the first five races of the 2011-12 season, as well as the seventh. Her teammate Michaela Kirchgasser took the sixth race, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

Hugues Ansermoz, head coach of the ladies’ team said Sunday’s result is the perfect tonic for his young team as they build towards Sochi 2014.

“The girls are all crying. It’s huge emotion for the whole team,” Ansermoz said. “At the beginning of the year we had a planning meeting and set some goals. We had put a podium as a goal. It was a longshot but we thought it was possible. We had put the podium down for Ofterschwang and when we came here I had forgotten about it! Then, last night we said to the girls, ‘Tomorrow, just go for the win.’

“Erin’s first run was incredible and we told her, ‘just go for it.’ The course was getting pretty rough but Erin did incredible at the bottom of the second run. I heard the last time a Canadian woman won in slalom was in 1971 – it’s amazing.”

With her second-place finish, Stiegler on Sunday celebrated the first podium of her career riddled with injuries that started with a Dec. 2007 crash in Lienz, Austria that resulted in a fracted left forearm and right tibia, as well as torn ligaments in her right knee. She returned for the World Championships slalom in 2009 before breaking her foot a week later. After fracturing her left tibia and femur while training in Colorado in Nov. 2009 she was eventually sidelined from the Vancouver Olympic Games before returning to the World Cup circuit in Aspen, Colo., in Nov. 2010. Sunday’s podium result therefore signified not only a career best, but also a personal victory for Stiegler.

“This is a huge breakthrough and I worked really hard for this. Results are difficult to get even if you are skiing really fast. I almost don’t have words for how I feel,” she said. “I don’t know why it came together today and I think maybe it could have come together all year and I was just waiting for this one day. This year was a crazy year. Never in my life did I ever want to just throw it in and I’ve had that feeling so many times this season. I think in the end I knew I worked so hard coming back from so many things I was just determined.

“I was thinking, ‘I have to do this and if it’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen, but I have to keep putting in the effort until its really done.’  In my head I knew that no matter what this isn’t the end. You have a day like today and you are very happy that you didn’t give up on yourself.”

“Super, super psyched for Resi [Stiegler],” added Alex Hoedlmoser, the U.S. Ski Team’s head women’s coach. “This is so amazing for her and it’s hard to put it into words actually. She was out for over two seasons completely. It’s incredibly tough to come back and catch up to the speed of world class skiers. To get back to racing you have to learn how to race again.”

World Cup overall leader Lindsey Vonn, of Vail, Colo., went out in the first run, but retained her 494 point overall lead as Slovenia’s Tina Maze went out in her final run. Colorado’s Mikaela Shiffrin was third after the first run, but finished 27th after series of second run mistakes.

The women’s tour now moves to Are, Sweden for a giant slalom and slalom this weekend.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Ofterschwang, Germany – Mar. 4, 2012
Women’s Slalom