Mikaela Shiffrin places outside top 30 in first run of World Cup giant slalom led by Alice Robinson

By Canadian Press on February 22, 2025.

SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin continued her tentative return to racing in giant slaloms Saturday and did not qualify for a second run for the first time since 2012 by placing outside the top 30.

Shiffrin finishing 2.50 seconds off the lead set by Alice Robinson with more than 30 faster racers ahead of her who advance to the second run in the afternoon.

The American star had finished 25th Friday in her first giant slalom since suffering severe trauma to her oblique muscles and a deep puncture wound during a GS crash in Killington, Vermont in November when she was within sight of a 100th career win.

On Saturday, she raced cautiously and wore an expression of resignation on seeing her time. The 14 previous racers had all been more than a second faster and within 1.05 of the lead.

The previous race that Shiffrin completed a first run in slalom or giant slalom outside the top-30 times was in October 2012 at the season-opening GS at Soelden, Austria. Then, a 17-year-old Shiffrin wearing bib No. 41 had the 31st fastest time.

Shiffrin’s lack of recent racing meant on Saturday the bib number 15 she wore was the highest in a World Cup giant slalom for more than eight years. She won that December 2016 race wearing No. 15 at Semmering, Austria.

Robinson, the world championships silver medalist this month, was quick through the lower section of the course to be 0.06 faster than Lara Gut-Behrami, the defending overall World Cup champion.

Britt Richardson, the 2024 junior world champion in GS from Canada, surprised in third place trailing by 0.07 to push world champion Federica Brignone down to fourth.

Brignone won Friday’s race, again with Robinson runner-up, to extend her lead over Gut-Behrami in the overall standings. New Zealand’s Robinson leads the seasonlong GS standings.

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The Associated Press

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