Hats off to Hansdotter

Since Mikaela Shiffrin’s injury in mid-December, the women’s World Cup slalom podium has been a free-for-all, making way for new talent to claim the top step. Frida Hansdotter has been consistently in the top three, but today marked her first time this season seeing the green light through to the end. 

Her victory in Lienz, Austria, on Tuesday makes Hansdotter the first woman since Shiffrin to have a streak of at least five podium finishes. She is also the first Swedish woman to do so since Anja Paerson.

“It was a really close race, and I knew it when I was standing in the start like ‘I really have to go for it every single gate,’ so I think I had a good start. But in the end, I had to struggle a little bit, but it was so nice to go over the finish line, and see like ‘Yeah, I won,’” the Swede said.

Her victory was by a slim margin, 0.07 seconds over Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, who earned her third career World Cup podium result.

“It feels great like the first one,” Holdener said of her finish. “It’s awesome to be back. I had some problems at the start of the season, but I have always some problems at the start. So yeah, it’s nice to be back.”

In third place was Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, who is on her way to becoming a regular on the slalom podium following her win in Are, Sweden, just over a week ago. When asked what is different this year compared to past years on the circuit, she just said she’s been taking it “step-by-step.”

Austria’s heroes did their best to impress local fans. Carmen Thalmann finished in fourth place, 0.35 seconds from the podium, and Katharina Truppe skied from bib 29 to ninth place, earning her best World Cup finish to date. Still, it was heartbreaking for the home crowd to see Michaela Kirchgasser yield a potential podium finish to a crash in the second run. 

Meanwhile, the depth of the American tech pool continues to shrink. Resi Stiegler was the lone representative in Lienz, skiing to 15th place with Shiffrin out due to injury and other young talent back home training.

Stiegler returned this season after yet another injury, slowly making her way back to form.

“Last night, I was in the bib draw, which is my first bib draw in eight years, and that was a huge accomplishment for me,” Stiegler said. “That’s obviously not a season goal for me. But it was something that I’ve been working towards, and you can kind of pat yourself on the back. But I do need to be getting the top 10s to be getting what I want. You know, obviously the podium is my goal, but I’ll be happy with top 10.”

Lienz holds a special place in Resi’s racing career as her father’s hometown.

“It’s awesome to be racing in Lienz,” she explained. “It’s like a second hometown for me. I was brought over here at a really young age and I’ve been racing this race for like 15 years now.”

While the women’s slalom tour was expected to continue in Zagreb, Croatia, in the new year, lack of snow at the venue has caused the event to be rescheduled to Santa Caterina, Italy – a new venue for many of the ladies.

“They are not canceled, so I’m looking forward to Santa Caterina,” said Hansdotter, current World Cup slalom points leader.

The Santa Caterina slalom – the first of 2016 – takes place on Monday, Jan. 5 at 10:00 a.m. local time.

Fans can stay current on the World Cup circuit by downloading the new U.S. Ski Team iOS app powered by Ski Racing here.

The Scoop
by Hank McKee

1. Hansdotter, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2. Holdener, Head/Head/Head
3. Vlhova, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4. Thalmann, Head/Head/Head
5. Strachova, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6. Velez Zuzulova, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7. Gisin, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
8. Curtoni, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9. Truppe, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
10. Gagnon, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

• Women’s World Cup slalom, Lienz, Austria, Dec. 29, 2015. … It is the 14th of 41 races on the women’s World Cup schedule … the fourth of 10 scheduled slaloms. … It is the 25th World Cup race hosted by Lienz … the 14th slalom. … Marlies Schild won the last three, and four of the last five slaloms at the site dating back to 2005. Austrians have won six Lienz slaloms and Swedes five. No other nation has more than one slalom victory at the site.
• It is the third career World Cup win for Frida Hansdotter, the last in a night slalom at Flachau last Jan. 13. … It is her fourth podium of the season. … The winning margin is .07 of a second. … Top five are within the same second. … Top 11 within two seconds.
• It is the third career World Cup podium for Wendy Holdener … and matches her career best from Ofterschwang March 10, 2013. It is the second career World Cup podium for Petra Vlhova, the first a win at Are earlier this season.
• It is the 35th career World Cup top 10 for Marie-Michele Gagnon … the 23rd in slalom. … It is her second best of six scoring finishes this season. … It is the 38th time Resi Stiegler has placed top 15 in a World Cup race. … It is her second best of five finishes at Lienz.
• Lara Gut (did not race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 658-500 over Lindsey Vonn (did not race). … Hansdotter is third overall with 476pt. … Mikaela Shiffrin (did not race) is eighth overall with 296pts.
• Hansdotter leads the slalom standings 320-220 over Vlhova. … Shiffrin is third with 200pts.
• Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup 1775-1463 over Switzerland. … Italy is third with 125pts. … The U.S. is fourth with 1134pts and Canada ninth at 389.

Official Results