Brathen Wins Val D'Isere Slalom, Holdner Wins In Sestriere

The same names have dominated slalom in recent years, but Wendy Holdener (SUI) is breaking through to add her name to the mix. The conditions in Sestriere Sunday were an improvement from the day prior, with a better surface and colder temperatures. The sun shone all day, drawing a large crowd to the Sestriere slope. On the podium with Shiffrin was Wendy Holdener of Switzerland with her second career slalom World Cup win and Petra Vlhova of Slovakia in third. 

After sharing the top of the podium in the previous slalom race in Killington, Holdener claimed the top prize all for herself in Sestriere. It is her third podium in this early portion of the Audi FIS World Cup season. She became the first Swiss female skier to win back-to-back World Cup slalom events since Vreni Schneider in 1994. Shiffrin came across 0.47 off the pace while Vlhova finished 0.70 behind. Holdener held second in the table after the first run and was ecstatic after crossing the line with the green light after her second run.

“It is amazing. I can believe it, but it is unreal I guess. My second run was the best run I showed in a race actually,” said Holdener.

Holdener now has 47 career World Cup podiums and five career victories on tour. After the result Shiffrin and Holdener share the lead in the slalom standings, each with two slalom victories to their name this season.

Shiffrin’s second place gives her 123 career World Cup podiums as she chases her 77th World Cup win. Shiffrin knows this slalom season will not be as easy to dominate as years past. It will take some fight to get through the schedule to stay on the podium.

“I am quite exhausted. I think I had some really good turns and some things to fix for the next slalom. It is a step from Killington and a step in the right direction. It was two really difficult days, there was some really impressive skiing from Wendy (Holdener) and Petra (Vlhova) this weekend,” said Shiffrin.

The American skier made the podium but wanted more.

“I had a lot of fatigue from yesterday. And then we had the award ceremony, which is always very exciting and an honour to be a part of that but, it takes an hour and a half in the evening when you want to be eating or recovering so you just have to take these days and enjoy it. If I am fast enough to be at the award ceremony that is wonderful. You just have to recover the best you can. Today I am mostly happy with my performance but not completely satisfied,” said Shiffrin.

Shiffrin’s main rival in slalom Petra Vlahova settled for third. It is the fourth time the decorated skier came up bronze this season. Vlahova now has 61 career World Cup podiums to her name.

“I am happy because I am consistent, and it is not so easy to fight for podium, but I am always fighting. Yesterday and today, I was in first position after the first run but then I had a few little mistakes to get third place. But I am happy,” said Vlahova.

Behind the big names at the top came a bit of a surprise. 19-year-old Hanna Aronsson Elfman (SWE) came from the 15th start position to finish fourth. Elfman was 16th in the standings after the first run was completed but shredded her second run to reach her highest career World Cup finish. Elfman had the fastest individual run of the field with a time of 56.69 seconds and led the field for first until the final three skiers finally bested her.

Paula Moltzan was close behind in fifth place, tying her career-best finish in the event, and Zoe Zimmermann scored her first World Cup points in 27th.

Moltzan was very excited about her individual result, but also the strength that the women’s team showed. “I'm proud of myself and I'm proud of my teammate Zoe,” said Moltzan. “Getting your first points is really hard, so to finally cross that threshold is only the beginning for her.”

It was the first time that Zimmermann had qualified for a second run and she scored her best World Cup result. “I was pretty nervous for the second run, but I'm so happy that I finished and I'm so happy that I got points today,” said Zimmermann.

Rounding out the Stifel U.S. Alpine Team, Ava Sunshine and Allie Resnick did not finish the first run, and Nina O’Brien and Katie Hensien did not qualify for a second run.

For the men, minutes after dominating a world-class field at Val d'Isère on Sunday for his second career World Cup slalom win, Norway's Lucas Braathen wanted nothing more than to head straight back to the top of the mountain.

"Man, I just want to do it again," the 22-year-old said after a blistering second run gave him victory in the first slalom race of the season by 0.84 seconds over Austria's Manuel Feller, with Switzerland's Loic Meillard claiming third.

In second place after the first run, Braathen threw down the gauntlet to first run leader and teammate Henrik Kristoffersen with the fastest second run of the field to vault into the lead. Skiing last and looking to win the season-opening slalom for the fourth time in his career, Kristoffersen's poised first run gave way to a second run littered with errors up and down the course and he fell to sixth, handing Braathen the victory.

"It's an amazing feeling right now," Braathen said. "I'll admit I've had a great pre-season, to be able to deliver what I've been delivering in practice today at the race was simply amazing.

"I love this place so to be here on the top of the podium today is just magical."

Braathen's victory gave the deep Norwegian technical team a national record of five straight men's World Cup slalom wins, following two triumphs by Kristoffersen and two by Atle Lie McGrath in the last four races of last season. While Braathen wanted to go back up the mountain after the race, second-placed Feller was happy just to have made it to the bottom of the Face de Bellevarde piste, where he had registered five consecutive slalom DNFs heading into Sunday's race.

"It's more like a hate and love place combined because I think this was my second finish in slalom over all of the years," Feller said.

"I was just finishing in my second World Cup race (23rd place in 2012), my first time here, and then always DNF. So that was also the reason why I didn't risk everything in the second run."

He risked enough to cap off a stellar weekend which also saw him finish second in Saturday's giant slalom behind Swiss star Marco Odermatt.

Meillard came from fifth after the first run to move up two places and sneak onto the podium after Kristoffersen's wild second run, while Sweden's Kristoffer Jakobsen finished fourth from a bib number of 20 and home favourite Alexis Pinturault was fifth. On a steep course topped with fresh overnight snow, first-run straddles ended the hopes of several contenders, including McGrath, Olympic slalom champion Clement Noël (FRA) and Olympic slalom silver medallist Johannes Strolz (AUT).

Some less established skiers enjoyed encouraging results, however, led by 23-year-old Italian Tobias Kastlunger, who came from a start number of 67 to finish 10th and register the first World Cup points of his career.

Skiing fifth in the second run, Kastlunger claimed the provisional lead after recording what would be the second-fastest time of the run behind only Braathen, and then made himself comfortable in the leader's chair while the next 11 skiers failed to dislodge him.

"Seeing the green light was a great feeling," Kastlunger said. "It was really great in the red (leader's) seat and maybe next time again," he laughed.