56th Win And 15th Globe For Marcel Hirscher

There is like a “déjà vu” when you look at today’s giant slalom results from Kranjska Gora. Only two weeks after the Olympic race, the same athletes make it on the podium on the Podkoren course: Marcel Hirscher, Henrik Kristoffersen and Alexis Pinturault. 

Hirscher of Austria won the race by a massive 1.66 seconds over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen. Alexis Pinturault of France was third. Hirscher extended his overall World Cup lead to 249 points over Kristoffersen.

The Olympic Champion from PyeongChang 2018 has an incredible momentum. After collecting two gold medals at the Olympics, Marcel Hirscher grabs a 56th World Cup win, the 27th in giant slalom, the 11th of this season. This one had a particular meaning for the Austrian super star, as he scored his first World Cup podium on this course ten years ago. Ten years of professional ski racing at such a level is pretty impressive. With this win, he also put the hammer down on his contenders for the cup standings. Besides winning the giant slalom on the Podkoren course, he also secured the crystal globe in that discipline. The 5th in giant slalom, the 15th in total.

Henrik Kristoffersen has been  constantly close behind Marcel Hirscher this season. The slalom whizz focused on his second discipline a lot in training and made consequent progress in the giant slalom, earning four second places and scoring Top 5 results in all GS events this season. Even if it wasn’t enough to defeat Marcel Hirscher, the Norwegian is proud of his results in that discipline.

Frenchman Alexis Pinturault is the only other winner of a giant slalom this season. Actually, he is the only men not named “Marcel Hirscher” that was able to win a GS since December 2016. Struggling to ski at his highest level at the beginning of the season, Pinturault now found his groove and after earning the bronze medal at the Olympics, he takes his fourth season podium and the 45th in career.

Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.) posted a career-best World Cup finish in ninth, and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) posted a career-best giant slalom result in 10th as the FIS Ski World Cup circuit resumed in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Saturday.

“It was a fight,” said Ford. “Two big mistakes, one from each run, but the skiing was there. It’s been a battle throughout the season, but I’m glad to have this race today on this kind of snow.”

Ford, who finished 10th in a World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek last season, led three U.S. Ski Team athletes into the points as Tim Jitloff (Reno, Nev.) finished 14th. Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) did not finish the first run.

“That second run, I couldn’t be happier with it,” said Cochran-Siegle, who posted the third fastest second run time on a hard, fast course. “I got to sit down in that (leader’s chair) for a while, which is always fun too.”

“It was cool watching Tommy,” Cochran-Siegle added. “He had that little mistake and I think he could’ve really moved up, but he skied great as well.”