Atle Lie McGrath / Schladming SL/ GEPA picture
Schladming isn’t just another World Cup slalom — it’s the Super Bowl of the discipline, and the Planai Stadium is the crowned jewel of race venues in alpine skiing. The atmosphere has to be experienced to be believed: loud, louder, ear-drum-breaking loud, with nearly 50,000 fans going completely mad under the floodlights.
On a shiny, warming surface that started as “polished ice you could skate on” and then got shaved and worked by every successive skier, Atle Lie McGrath opened the night like a champion and never surrendered the lead.
Top five after Run 1
- 1st 🇳🇴 Atle Lie McGrath (NOR, 2000, HEAD) — 53.12
- 2nd 🇳🇴 Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR, 1994) — +0.15
- 3rd 🇨🇭 Loïc Meillard (SUI, 1996) — +0.44
- 4th 🇫🇷 Paco Rassat (FRA, 1998, HEAD) — +0.63
- 5th 🇧🇷 Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA, 2000 Atomic/Oakley) — +0.78
Run 1 story: speed at the bottom decides everything
McGrath’s 53.12 was “as good as it looked,” especially because he kept extracting speed where others bled it — the lower sectors, where multiple stars gave away time after sliding turns and losing grip.
Kristoffersen was the first true threat and skied very well, but still finished 0.15 back — tight margins on a night where excellence is required.
Meillard looked “on fire” early and stayed in it, but the lost time on the bottom pattern of the night hit him too: strong sections, then time leaking away late, finishing +0.44.
With so many stacked inside a second, the read is simple:
- those more than ~0.7 back are fighting long odds for the win,
- podium is still realistic, but increasingly selective,
- and one screamer in run two can still flip everything for anyone within a second.
DNFs have been notably low (only three through the first 30), a sign the surface is shiny but forgiving enough that many are recovering from mistakes — even as the warm temperatures deteriorated the ice and it became more difficult to manage for later starters.
Key challengers and context
- Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (slalom standings leader coming in) was greeted by roars and acknowledged the crowd before exiting the finish. His run was good, not great: +0.78, still podium-live, but a win looks unlikely without a monster second run.
- Clément Noël stayed in touch: +0.88.
- Eduard Hallberg (two podiums this season) delivered world-class skiing and jumped right into the mix: 6th at +0.82.
- Armand Marchant backed it up and made the race even deeper: 7th at +0.83.
- The biggest roar was for Austria’s Manuel Feller, but mistakes left him +1.68 and out of the win fight in a hurry.
Stifel US Ski Team qualifiers
A major storyline tonight is the resurgence of Luke Winters — the former multi-season U.S. No. 1 — finding something special on the biggest slalom stage in the sport.
- 🇺🇸 Luke Winters (USA, 2000, Fischer) — 25th, +2.63
Winters’ last World Cup points came on Feb. 4, 2023. His last second-run qualification was on March 3, 2024, in Aspen. Tonight, he’s not only back into the second run — he’s the top American and faster than GBR’s Dave Ryding, which underlines just how big this is. - 🇺🇸 Benjamin Ritchie (USA, 2000) — 30th, +2.84
Ritchie hangs on in 30th and qualifies, despite the cutoff tightening repeatedly.
GBR qualifiers
- 🇬🇧 Dave Ryding (GBR, 1986) — 26th, +2.67
The retiring veteran got a full-throated Planai cheer for years of entertainment and looks safely through.
Bib 31+ skiers inside the top 30 (in finish order)
- 17th 🇭🇷 Istok Rodes (CRO, 1996) — bib 32
- 21st 🇸🇪 Fabian Ax Swartz (SWE, 2004, Van Deer) — bib 52
- 24th 🇳🇴 Theodor Brækken (NOR, 2004) — bib 50
- 25th 🇺🇸 Luke Winters (USA, 2000, Fischer) — bib 51
- 27th 🇦🇹 Adrian Pertl (AUT, 1996) — bib 36
- 28th 🇦🇹 Joshua Sturm (AUT, 2001) — bib 43
- 29th 🇨🇭 Ramon Zenhaeusern (SUI, 1992, Rossignol) — bib 34
- 30th 🇺🇸 Benjamin Ritchie (USA, 2000) — bib 31
The fastest skier from the high bibs was 🇭🇷 Istok Rodes, charging into 17th from bib 32.
The highest bib to qualify was 🇸🇪 Fabian Ax Swartz, who pushed through into 21st from bib 52.
First Run top thirty
Click images to enlarge
First Run Analysis of the fastest, North American and British Qualifiers
About the Author: Peter Lange
