10/24/2026 10:04:00
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10/24 10:03 CDT Moltzan wins World Cup race for 1st time, Shiffrin finishes
giant slalom in 7th as ski season starts
Moltzan wins World Cup race for 1st time, Shiffrin finishes giant slalom in 7th
as ski season starts
SOLDEN, Austria (AP) --- American Paula Moltzan broke through with her first
career World Cup win while Mikaela Shiffrin finished the women's giant slalom
in seventh as the Alpine ski racing season opened on Saturday.
Shiffrin led after the first run in Slden, Austria, on the Rettenbach glacier.
But her second run wasn't good enough and sent the Olympic slalom champion down
to seventh.
When Shiffrin crossed the line, it was Moltzan who was left celebrating her
first World Cup win at age 32.
"It feels like a fairy tale right now, pretty unreal," Moltzan said.
For years Moltzan has been considered the second-best technical skier on the
American team behind Shiffrin.
The Minnesota native grew up idolizing Lindsey Vonn, skiing on the same hill in
Minnesota where Vonn learned to race. Both of her parents were ski instructors
at Buck Hill, and Moltzan moved into the elite program led by Vonn's former
coach, Erich Sailer, when she was 12.
In February, Moltzan won an Olympic bronze medal in team combined at last
season's Milan Cortina Games with teammate Jacqueline Wiles. A year before
that, Moltzan won bronze in giant slalom at the world championships. Otherwise,
her career had been marked by near misses.
Lara Colturi of Albania was second on Saturday. Germany's Emma Aicher, who last
season finished second to Shiffrin in the overall title standings, was third.
Shiffrin shifts focus this season
Shiffrin's sixth World Cup overall title last season equaled the women's record
set in the 1970s by Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Prll. But Shiffrin has
called this campaign an "exploration season" in which she will reduce her
slalom races and focus more on giant slalom and super-G.
The 31-year-old hasn't won a giant slalom race in nearly three years, going
back to December 2023, while her last super-G victory was in 2022.
Shiffrin used to race and win in all disciplines, but she had reduced her
schedule in recent years after she endured terrifying crashes in a downhill in
Cortina in early 2024 and a GS in Killington 10 months later. Her 22 career
victories in giant slalom remain the women's record, as are her 73 wins in
slalom and 110 wins overall.
A men's giant slalom will be held at Slden on Sunday.
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See AP's full Alpine skiing coverage here
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