American Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin did not qualify for the second run of Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom race in Sestriere, Italy, finishing 33rd in the first run as she continues her recovery from an injury that kept her out of competition for two months.
Shiffrin was 2.50 seconds off the pace of New Zealand’s Alice Robinson. Only the top 30 skiers advance to the second run.
It was her second straight day of giant slalom competition after being out of the event since a November crash that left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen. She qualified for the second run Friday and finished 25th.
Italian star Federica Brignone fought off an illness to win both races in front of her home-country fans. In fourth after Saturday’s first run, she posted the top time in the second, finishing in 2:08.81. Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami (0.77 seconds behind) and Robinson (0.79) rounded out the top three.
On Friday, Brignone finished in 2:12.69 to come back from second position after the first run to top Robinson by 0.40 seconds and put that pair back atop a giant slalom podium after they also finished 1-2 in the giant slalom at last week’s world championships. Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund took third, 1.57 back.
Brignone, the silver medalist in giant slalom at the 2022 Olympics, now has 34 career World Cup victories and 16 in giant slalom. She leads the overall World Cup standings and has seven wins this season.
Federica Brignone celebrates her win Saturday in the giant slalom race in Sestriere, Italy, her second straight day with a victory in the event. (Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)
American Paula Moltzan, the bronze-medal winner at worlds, was the top American on Friday, finishing sixth. She took eighth on Saturday, one spot behind fellow American A.J. Hurt, who was 12th on Friday.
Nina O’Brien, with an eighth-place run on Friday, also earned a top-10 finish for the U.S. team.
On Friday, Shiffrin was 18th after the first run, 2.89 seconds back of the leader Robinson, finishing in 1:08.93. She completed the second run in 1:08.41, the second-slowest time of the 28 skiers who made it to the finish line. Overall, she was 4.65 seconds off Brignone’s pace.
Saturday’s run marked the first time since October 2012 that the 29-year-old Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time world champion, failed to qualify for the second run in either a giant slalom or slalom. But just being back in the field for this event was a notable moment for her. Eleven days ago, Shiffrin announced she would skip the giant slalom at the world championships, citing “mental obstacles” as she continued her recovery from a crash in the same event in Killington, Vt., on Nov. 30.
She acknowledged Thursday she’s still not fully past it but said she felt well enough to compete in Sestriere.
“I do not yet feel entirely myself,” she wrote on social media, “…but I do feel enough of myself to be here…and for now, that is enough.”
After withdrawing from the giant slalom at worlds, Shiffrin entered the team combined event instead, finishing third in the slalom leg to win the gold medal with U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson. She also competed in her signature event, the slalom, finishing fifth — 0.05 seconds from a record-breaking medal.
A slalom race is set for Sunday in Sestriere.
Friday’s race was Shiffrin’s first giant slalom since that day in Killington, when she was vying for her 100th career World Cup win on a familiar hill, not far from where she once trained at Burke Mountain Academy. But the crash kept her out of competition until late January.
She returned on Jan. 30, finishing 10th in a slalom race in Courchevel, France, before heading to worlds.
Before the injury, Shiffrin was off to a soaring start to the season. She won the first two slalom events — in Levi, Finland, and Gurgl, Austria — in November to reach 99 World Cup wins and make a celebration on home soil seem inevitable.
Then, in Killington, she posted the top time in the first run of the giant slalom, looking poised to hit the 100 mark — never before achieved in Alpine skiing — before she lost control during the second run, fell to the snow, flipped and slid into the safety netting. She missed the next day’s slalom race before announcing an extended absence.
As Shiffrin returned and pursued history on the World Cup tour and at world championships, where she is tied for the all-time lead in medals won, she has cautioned that returning to top form will be a process.
“It’s eight weeks since I had surgery,” she said after the world championship slalom. “It’s six weeks since I was laying in bed with a drainage tube sticking out of me. So, it’s like, perspective is important. … It takes time.”
Two more slalom weekends remain on the World Cup calendar for the women — in Are, Sweden, on March 8-9 and in Sun Valley, Idaho, at the World Cup Finals on March 22-27.
(Photo of Mikaela Shiffrin during Saturday’s giant slalom: Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)
