Mikaela Shiffrin earned her first World Cup giant slalom podium in two years on Saturday, finishing third in the last GS event before the Milan Cortina Olympics. The American, who won Olympic gold in the discipline in 2018, trailed winner Sara Hector by 0.23 seconds.
Defending Olympic champion Hector held her opening-run lead to claim her first victory since January 2025. 'You always have to keep working – it’s so many strong girls as you can see today,' said the Swede. 'I am super happy that in the end I crossed the finish line first.'
Shiffrin was joined on the podium by US teammate Paula Moltzan, who finished second, 0.18 seconds behind Hector. It was Moltzan’s third podium of the season as she continues her search for a maiden World Cup win. The strong US showing also included Nina O’Brien in fifth and AJ Hurt in eighth.
Shiffrin holds the women’s record for most World Cup GS wins with 22, but had not finished in the top three in the discipline since a runner-up result in Slovakia in January 2024. Six days later she crashed in a downhill on the course that will be used for next month’s Olympics, and then suffered a puncture wound and severe abdominal muscle damage in a crash at her home GS in Killington, Vermont, in November 2024, which also led to lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.
This season, Shiffrin had recorded three fourth-place finishes before finally returning to the podium three weeks before the Olympic race in Cortina d’Ampezzo. In the opening run, Hector edged out Camille Rast of Switzerland by 0.02 seconds, with GS rankings leader Julia Scheib of Austria 0.26 back in third. Rast dropped to fourth, while Scheib skied out in the final run.
Overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone and Italian teammate Sofia Goggia sat out the event in Czechia, with a weekend of speed racing coming up in Switzerland next week ahead of their home Olympics.
