Who to Watch? Copper Mountain Women's Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom

Julia Scheib. 2025 Alpine Ski World Cup Opener in Soelden. Picture: Interwetten GEPA Pictures

The 2025–2026 Women's FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom season will continue in Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 29, at 10:00 local / 18:00 CET.

Copper Mountain (USA)

Saturday, 29.11.2025

• 10:00 LOC 1st run

• 13:00 LOC 2nd run

  
  

This is the fourth time that the Women will race in a World Cup Giant Slalom event at Copper Mountain.

In March 1976, Copper stepped in to host Men’s and Women’s Giant Slalom and Slalom races after Heavenly Valley, California, was forced to cancel due to a lack of snow. German Olympic Champion Rosi Mittermaier swept the Women’s events, and Rosi’s Run at Copper was named in her honor.

Once again, Copper hosted the Women's Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom and Slalom races in November 1999, after Park City, Utah, was unable to host them due to poor snow conditions. The Giant Slalom event was won by Régine Cavagnoud of France, with Karen Putzer of Italy in second place and Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria in third.

The Women’s Giant Slalom and Slalom World Cup races, scheduled to take place in Aspen, were relocated to Copper Mountain for a third time in November 2001 due to challenging snow conditions. Norway's Andrine Flemmen won the Women's Giant Slalom World Cup event at Copper Mountain in 2001, with Canada's Allison Forsyth in second place and Switzerland's Sonja Nef in third.

In front of 15,900 ski fans, Julia Scheib secured victory for the host nation in the Women's Alpine Ski World Cup opener held in Soelden. Scheib finished with a lead of 0.58 seconds over Paula Moltzan, while Lara Gut-Behrami completed the podium 1.11 seconds behind Scheib.

Austrian Julia Scheib's victory in 2025 on the Rettenbach Glacier in Soelden, the first of her Alpine Ski World Cup career, ended the Austrian Women's Team's long drought in the Giant Slalom. Before today, the last win in the discipline for the Austrian Women's Ski Team was achieved by Eva-Maria Brem in Jasna in 2016. Since then, the ski team has not won a single victory in 79 races. This extended wait has been the longest experienced by any discipline within the Austrian team.

With a winning margin of 0.58 seconds, she recorded the largest winning gap in a women’s race in Sölden since Lara Gut-Behrami won by 1.44 seconds ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin in 2016. This victory also marked the first time that an Austrian skier had won the women’s race in Sölden since Anna Veith and Mikaela Shiffrin tied for first place in 2014.

If Julia Scheib wins in Copper Mountain, it will mark the first time an Austrian skier has won two women’s Giant Slalom races in a row since Anna Veith won three in a row in the 2014-2015 winter season.

Historically, the women’s World Cup Giant Slalom has been dominated by Austria, with 94 race victories and 277 podium finishes — the most in both categories by any national Team. Switzerland is second in both categories, with 83 victories and 211 podium finishes in the Giant Slalom.

Last season was the second time Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish in the Top three of the Giant Slalom rankings. She was in the top three from the 2016–17 to the 2022–23 World Cup seasons, including victories in 2018-2019 and 2022-2023. 22 of her impressive 103 World Cup victories come in Giant Slalom. With seven Giant Slalom victories in the 2022-2023 winter season, Mikaela Shiffrin surpassed Vreni Schneider's record of 20 wins. On March 10, 2023, Shiffrin equaled Schneider's record in Åre, only to break it nine days later in Soldeu. She achieved her last Giant Slalom victory in Lienz in December 2023 and her last podium in January 2024 in Jasna.

In a breathtaking display of talent and determination, Mikaela Shiffrin (Vail, Colorado, March 13, 1995), the winningest alpine skier of all time, reached an incredible milestone last Saturday, claiming 103 wins in 284 races at the Alpine World Ski Cup. Shiffrin claimed her 103 World Cup win in Gurgl on Sunday, 23 November.

She finished on the podium 159 times in 284 Alpine Ski World Cup starts. No male or female skier has claimed more podiums in the World Cup than Shiffrin.

In 2018, Shiffrin fulfilled her goal of reaching the top of the podium in the Giant Slalom at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Shiffrin finished fourth in the Giant Slalom in Sölden in October. With 43 podium finishes in the women’s Giant Slalom World Cup, she sits third on the all-time list. She is one podium ahead of Federica Brignone (42), two behind Anita Wachter, and three behind leader Vreni Schneider, who has achieved 46 podium finishes.

On October 26, 2019, Alice Robinson won the women's World Cup Giant Slalom event in Sölden at age 17. She became the youngest winner of a World Cup event since Mikaela Shiffrin, who was also 17 years old when she won her first World Cup event (in 2012-2013) in Åre in December 2012.

Alice Robinson from New Zealand has won four World Cup Giant Slalom titles and has finished on the podium 17 times. Her most recent victory came in January 2025 at Kronplatz, nearly four years after her last Alpine Ski World Cup win in Lenzerheide on March 21, 2021.

In 2025, she finished in second place in the Giant Slalom ranking, 60 points behind Federica Brignone. This marked the third occasion in which a female Alpine skier from a nation outside of Europe and North America finished as the runner-up for a discipline's Crystal Globe, and the first time this happened in Giant Slalom. The two previous instances were also accomplished by skiers from New Zealand: Annelise Coberger finished second in Slalom in 1993, followed by Claudia Riegler, who achieved the same result in 1997.

With seven Giant Slalom World Cup podium finishes (and two DNFs) and a silver medal in the Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach, only a fantastic Federica Brignone prevented Robinson from being crowned the best Giant Slalom skier of the 2024-2025 Alpine Ski World Cup winter season.

If Alice Robinson wins at least one World Cup race during the 2025-2026 winter season, she will become the most successful female Alpine Ski World Cup racer from a nation outside Europe or North America. Robinson begins the season with four World Cup race victories, tying her with her fellow New Zealander, Claudia Riegler, who won four races in the late 1990s.

Sara Hector claimed 21 of her 24 World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom, including seven wins in Courchevel, Kranjska Gora, Kronplatz in the 2021-2022 winter season, Jasna in 2024, Killington, and Kranjska Gora last season. In 2022, an inner ligament injury deprived her of becoming 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.

In 2024, she finished in third place in the Giant Slalom standings.

Paula Moltzan's second-place finish in Soelden was her best Giant Slalom result to date, having previously finished third in the Giant Slalom in Kronplatz in the 2024–25 winter season. Despite achieving six World Cup podium finishes since the 2020–21 season, Moltzan has yet to win a World Cup race.

On Thursday, Lara Gut-Behrami's worst fears were confirmed. The 34-year-old Swiss skier tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee following a serious crash during training at Copper Mountain last week. This brings the superstar's season to a premature end — potentially ending her career as well.

In October, Lara Gut-Behrami achieved the remarkable milestone of reaching 101 Alpine Ski World Cup podiums in Sölden, equalling the record set by Vreni Schneider. She is now the sixth woman to surpass 100 World Cup podiums, joining Mikaela Shiffrin (157), Lindsey Vonn (138), Annemarie Moser-Pröll (114), and Renate Götschl (110) in this achievement. Notably, almost eighteen years elapsed between her first podium finish (third place in the downhill event in St. Moritz in 2008) and her last in Sölden.