In Killington Lara Gut-Behrami put two clean and fast runs together to win the fifth World Cup Giant Slalom of her career. After setting the third fastest time in the first run, the 31-year-old skier from Ticino was faster than leader of the first run Sara Hector to claimed her 36th World Cup victory. Never before has a Swiss woman landed on the podium in the Killington Giant Slalom.
Marta Bassino finished in second place +0.07 seconds behind the Swiss.
Sara Hector rounded up the podium in third place +0.20 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.
In 2020-2021 Marta Bassino, and in 2021-2022 Mikaela Shiffrin, won the first two Women's World Cup Giant Slalom events of the season.
The triple-medal winner in Cortina, -she won the world titles in the Super-G and Giant Slalom and the bronze medal in the Downhill-, with 35 victories is in ninth place on the all-time women's list for most World Cup wins in all events.
Lara Gut-Behrami claimed 5 of her 35 World Cup wins in the Giant Slalom. She was on the podium 66 times in the World Cup, fiveteen of them in Giant Slalom.
Gut-Behrami's won the gold medal in Giant Slalom in Cortina 2021. She became the most decorated Swiss woman in world championships history. She has won eight medals in total at the world championships 2 Gold (Cortina 2021, SG and GS) 3 Silver (Val d'Isere 2009, SG and SComb.; Schladming, SG), and 3 bronze (Vail-Beaver Creek 2015, DH; St. Moritz 2017, SG; and Cortina 2021, DH).
Lara Gut-Behrami claims her first Olympic Giant Slalom medal in Beijing 2022. It was her third Olympic medal. She won Super-G gold also in Beijing 2022, and Downhill bronze in Sochi in 2014.
Last season Tessa Worley won the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe.
It was her second World Cup title after winning the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in the 2016-2017 season. She is also the second French female skier -Carole Merle won the discipline's title in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993-, to win two times the women's Giant Slalom globe.
With 16 victories, Tessa Worley is in second place, tied with Annemarie Moser-Pröll, on the women's list for most World Cup wins in the Giant Slalom. Vreni Schneider tops this list with 20.
Tessa Worley claimed the gold medal in Giant Salom at the 2013 Schladming and 2017 St. Moritz FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. She also won the bronze medal in the GS at the 2011 Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Marta Bassino won the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in 2021. After being the most consistent racer in the discipline in the 2020-2021 season, last season she failed to show the same consistency and win a Giant Slalom race. But she finished in a good shape the competition with two second places in the Finals in Courchevel-Meribel and in Åre. Bassino also was on the podium another two times last season with two third places at Courchevel in December 2021 and Kranjska Gora in January 2022.
The 26-year-old Italian has won five Giant Slalom World Cup races. She claimed her victories in Killington, Sölden, Courchevel and Kranjska Gora (2). The three Italian women with the most victories in Giant Slalom are Deborah Compagnoni (13), Federica Brignone (8) and Denise Karbon (6).
Mikaela Shiffrin has claimed 14 World Cup victories in the Giant slalom. She is fourth in the women's list for most World Cup wins in the Giant Slalom behind Vreni Schneider (20), Tessa Worley (16), and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16).
In 2019 Mikaela Shiffrin won the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe. She was the first alpine ski athlete to win the following combination of World Cup Crystal Globes in a single season (2019): Overall, Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super-G. After winning her first Super-G race at Lake Louise in December 2018, Shiffrin became the first athlete in FIS Ski World Cup history to win in all six disciplines.
In 2018 Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in Giant Slalom in the Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games.
The American superstar won the silver medal in Giant Slalom in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships held in Cortina in 2021. She also has won a bronze medal in Åre 2019 and another silver in St. Moritz 2017.
In the last World Cup Giant Slalom before the Finals in Courchevel Slovakia's Petra Vlhova emerge victorious for the first time in the season. One year after her last win in the Giant Slalom in Jasna, in Åre, in the same place she won gold in 2019, Vlhova put on a show of strength and determination on an extremely demanding slope and difficult course setting, especially in the first run.
Petra Vlhova has claimed the first ever World Championships gold medal for Slovakia at the 2019 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Åre (SWE) in the Giant Slalom event.
Six of her 26 victories in the World Cup came in the Giant Slalom, and 14 of her 59 podiums were also in this discipline.
Last season, Federica Brignone earned her first Giant Slalom win at the Courchevel-Meribel 2022 Finals. After being second in the first run, Brignone skied a solid second run to beat teammate Marta Bassino by 0.31 seconds. Petra Vlhova rounded up today's podium in third place, +0.37 seconds behind Brignone. The 32-year-old celebrated her 20th World Cup victory.
Italian women won at least one World Cup Giant Slalom event in each of the last seven seasons (2015-2016 to 2021-2022).
Brignone achieved eight of her 20 World Cup victories in Giant Slalom. Also 26 of her 49 podiums came in the same discipline.
Back in 2020 Federica Brignone Grabs the Overall, Giant Slalom, and Alpine Combined Globes. Brignone can be proud to be the first Italian woman to conquer the Overall Globe. Brignone joined the Italian-Overall club composed by Piero Gros, Gustav Thoeni and Alberto Tomba on the Men's field.
Federica Brignone finished in second place in the Giant Slalom at Beijing 2022, earning her second Olympic medal, after winning Bronze in the same discipline at Pyeongchang 2018.
Federica Brignone claimed the silver medal in Giant Salom at the 2011 Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Sara Hector claimed six World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom last season, including wins in Courchevel, Kranjska Gora, and Kronplatz. The Swede had collected three podiums in her first 76 Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom participations combined (Åre and Küthai in 2014, and Courchevel in 2020).
Her injury deprived her to become the second Swedish winner of the Women's Giant Slalom crystal globe, after Anja Pärson (2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2005-2006).
Hector won the Olympic Giant Slalom gold in Beijing.
Austrian women have won a record 93 Giant Slalom races in the World Cup, but not since Eva-Maria Brem won in Jasná in March 2016.
In Killington, Swiss Wendy Holdener and Swede Anna Swenn Larsson, surprisingly shared their first Slalom victory in the World Cup. It was the first Women's Slalom joint first place since 2011 in Flachau when Tanja Poutiainen and Maria Riesch shared the first position.
Katharina Truppe finished in third place, +0.22 seconds behind the winning duo.
After 106 starts Wendy Holdener won a World Cup slalom for the first time. The 29-year-old Swiss had stood on the Slalom podium in the World Cup 30 times, but had yet to achieve her first victory. This was the record for the most World Cup podium finishes in a single discipline without winning.
Only Frida Hansdotter (17) has finished second more times in a World Cup slalom than Holdener (15). Holdener's 15 third-place finishes in slalom are also a record for a woman.
Before Killington the last Swiss winner of a women's slalom World Cup was Michelle Gisin in Semmering on 29 December 2020.
The last Swiss woman to win back-to-back World Cup Slalom events was Vreni Schneider in 1994 (six in a row).
In the last Slalom Anna Swenn Larsson finished in the top of the podium with Holdener.
Until Killington Anna Swenn-Larsson had achieved six slalom podiums in the World Cup, but she had not achieved her first victory. Sweden's most recent slalom World Cup victory was achieved by Frida Hansdotter in Flachau on January 10, 2017.
Swenn-Larsson can become the first female Swedish skier to win multiple World Cup Slalom events in a single season since Anja Pärson won three in 2005-2006.
Mikaela Shiffrin won both World Cup Slalom races in Levi and she can become the first woman to win the first three World Cup races of a season. In 1979-1980, Marie-Theres Nadig won three events (Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Alpine Combined), but the alpine combined classification was made up of the results of two races, the Downhill and Giant Slalom events.
Shiffrin has won 76 World Cup events. After her back-to-back victories in Levi she is two steps closer to Lindsey Vonn (82) as record holder among women. The only man to have won more World Cup events is Ingemar Stenmark (86).
Only Ingemar Stenmark (155), Marcel Hirscher (138), and Lindsey Vonn (137), have claimed more podiums in the World Cup than Mikaela Shiffrin (122).
Mikaela Shiffrin, who had won all 5 previous Slaloms held in Killington and the first two ones of the season in Levi, missed the podium in fifth place (+0.59).
Petra Vlhova won last season's Slalom crystal globe. The Slovak also picked up Olympic gold in the Slalom at the Beijing Winter Games. It's the second time she picked up the Slalom title after winning it in the 2019-2020 season.
Vlhova finished on the podium, two third places, in the first two Slalom events of this World Cup season in Levi.
In 2022 Vlhová has equaled Anja Pärson (both 17) in sixth place on the women's list for most World Cup Slalom victories. Janica Kostelic (20) is in fifth place.
Last season Katharina Liensberger won the last slalom event held before the Finals. It was her third World Cup win in this discipline (all in March), after back-to-back wins in the 2020-2021 season in Åre and the 2021 World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide. Until Åre, last World Cup season, the 24-year-old skier from Vorarlberg had claimed two podium finishes in the Slalom: second in Lienz on 29 December and third in Zagreb on 4 January.
The four Austrian women to have claimed more than three World Cup slalom victories are Marlies Schild (35), Roswitha Steiner (8), Gertrud Gabl (5), and Nicole Hosp (5).
Lena Dürr is hoping to become the first German woman to record a World Cup slalom victory since Maria Höfl-Riesch in Levi on 10 November 2012. Dürr can become the oldest German woman to win a World Cup event (including East/West Germany). Viktoria Rebensburg holds the current record as she won the Garmisch-Partenkirchen downhill on 8 February 2020 at age 30y-127d.