Valerie Grenier Celebrates her Win – Photo: GEPA Pictures

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia – The skies in Kranjska Gora continued to be overcast. Given the temperature, the surface remained remarkably good. If the first run course set was straightforward, the second one is even more so. Today Canadian Valerie Grenier is the winner. Skiing at a level she had previously never achieved, she left no questions unanswered. She was the best skier of the day.

“It feels amazing! I’ve wanted this day for so long; it’s a dream come true,” said a beaming Grenier. “I’m proud that I was able to keep it together for the second run and to find a way to win after winning the first run. I thought that there would be a lot of pressure, but I felt really calm and confident.  I’m so happy to have our team here. It was so fun to see them at the finish and to celebrate with them.

Grenier not only has her first podium but she has her first victory. Grenier was fastest for the day by 0.37 of a second. It is the first Women’s Canadian GS victory in nearly 50 years. Notably, the emotional Canadian champion didn’t know what to say at the finish.

A Canadian woman hadn’t won a World Cup giant slalom since Kathy Kreiner in 1974; Kreiner went on to also win the event at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics.

Grenier had won three medals — a gold, a silver and a bronze — at the junior worlds between 2015 and 2016. But she broke the tibia and fibula bones in her lower right leg a couple of months after her then-best result in Cortina.

“I had four breaks and it just took a really long time to heal. So since the injury, I kind of focused more on giant slalom,” she said. “I feel like, finally, everything is coming together, and I’m finally skiing at my best.”

Additionally, Italy’s Marta Bassino adds to her discipline lead, finishing 2nd and Vlhova, only 0.03 slower than Bassino, finishes 3rd. Slovakian Petra Vlhova skied the second-fastest final run but remains winless during the 2022-23 season.

The second run excitement accelerated when Vlhova, tired of not winning, crossed with a 0.93 lead. She skied well at the top of the course but then found additional speed at the bottom. She stayed ahead of the next skier, Mikaela Shiffrin, who crossed tied for second. However, Vlhova did not beat the next racer, World Cup GS leader Marta Bassino. Bassino, who finished only 0.03 of a second ahead of Vlhova, was then the leader. Bossino then watched fellow Italian Federica Brignone threaten the lead all the way through the final split before falling behind to cross into third. The leaders then watched as Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, 2nd after the first run, crossed in 4th. However, they all witnessed the improbable as the Canadian Grenier left no doubt she was today’s best by winning both runs and the race.

Shiffrin’s run of consecutive victories had to end eventually. Today she ends the day in a very respectable tie for sixth. Her miraculous season continues and she remains the most dominant skier in the world. Tomorrow will offer the next opportunity for her to start a winning streak and add to her seven victories this season.

After the race, Shiffrin stated, “I felt like my skiing was quite good. But there’s a difference between good skiing and then the fastest skiing. So we’ll look at the video and see what I can adjust. If I can adjust something, I’ll try it tomorrow. It is usually five or six turns. It can make that big of a difference. So it is probably a minor adjustment.” 

Once again, she made her thought process clear, “We focus on the moment that we’re in and not the moment in the past or the moment in the future. And when you talk about records or things like that, it’s always talking about something in history or something in the future. And it takes you completely out of the moment you’re in.”

The home crowd experienced lots of excitement from their own Ana Bucik. The only Slovenian in the second run crossed with a 0.27-second lead. She ended the race scoring her career-best World Cup GS result, finishing in 8th place.

The first North American to ski the second run was USA’s Paula Moltzan. Even though she didn’t cross with the lead, a happy Moltzan said hello to her father through the TV camera before exiting the finish. Moltzan ends the race 19th.

To finish among the fastest required the athletes to attack and push their comfort zone. The first racer to stand out was Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund. She used the 3rd fastest second run to occupy the leader’s chair and watch the next eight skiers and eventually move up 12 positions from 23rd place to finishing 11th.

Analysis of the top three and other North American qualifiers and final results

Final results January 7th Kranjska Gora GS