Bassino Double Win In Kranjska Gora
She did it again. Italian Marta Bassino won her second straight giant slalom in as many days at the Audi FIS World Cup in Kranjska Gora (SLO), earning her fourth total GS race this season.
Bassino has been a force to be reckoned with in the discipline all season. While she has two DNFs as well, the four times she has finished the race, she has won.
Today looked like it could be more of a challenge for Bassino, who sat in second place behind Mikaela Shiffrin after the first run. But the American lost a lot of time on the bottom half of the course and ultimately had to settle for sixth place.
Second place went to Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin, who before this weekend had not earned a World Cup giant slalom podium place and walks away from Kranjska Gora with two to her credit. Gisin climbed up one spot in the second run after finishing in third place in the first run.
Rounding out the podium was Slovenian Meta Hrovat, who earned just her third career World Cup podium. The last time she was on the podium was exactly one year ago during the same race weekend in Kranjska Gora.
For the Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Nina O’Brien had another solid day in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, matching Saturday’s results to finish sixth and 13th, respectively.
Shiffrin sat in the lead after first run by .30 seconds—a run she said was fun and fluid—but overskied the second run to drop back to sixth place. However, she left the venue feeling mentally strong and ready to keep working. “Today I just wanted to ski,” said Mikaela. “I changed my mindset and my attitude coming into today and just wanted the feeling of a few good turns again. I felt that first run today and that’s something positive to take away from the weekend.”
It was another great day for U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Nina O’Brien, who matched her personal best giant slalom result from Saturday with another 13th place on the icy Slovenian track. She had the 10th-fastest second run, showing that she’s right on the brink of breaking into the elusive World Cup top 10. “The first and last run of the weekend was great skiing,” said Magnus Andersson, the women’s tech team head coach. “It’s step by step—I know she can ski fast. It’s good.”
AJ Hurt was having a strong run first run, showing sixth-fastest splits at the top, but lost her outside ski and DNFed. “AJ is in the run,” said Magnus. “She’s going to get there. She’s fast—as fast as Nina for sure. It was tough snow this weekend and she will learn.”
The day before Italian Marta Bassino continued to be the woman to beat in giant slalom as she picked up her third victory of the season in the discipline today in Kranjska Gora (SLO). The Italian has won every giant slalom race that she finished this season.
Bassino led after the first run by 0.23 seconds and extended her dominance even further in the second run, to pick up the victory by a 0.80 margin.
Second place was a familiar face on tour, but nevertheless a surprise as Tessa Worley (FRA) turned in the fastest second run to jump ahead three places into second place. It was her best World Cup finish since exactly two years ago in Kronplatz.
Michelle Gisin ended the first run in second place, and relegated to third place at the end of the day, but the Swiss was still quite happy to earn her first-ever career giant slalom podium. It also helped her gain a little ground in the hunt for the Overall World Cup. She still sits in second place behind Petra Vlhova and just ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin. Both finished just out of podium range in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Mikaela Shiffrin was the top U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete, finishing in sixth place. Nina O’Brien snagged a career-best giant slalom finish in 13th.
In the race that was originally scheduled for Maribor, Slovenia but moved due to a lack of snow, Marta Bassino of Italy took the win by .80 seconds and storied Golden Fox Trophy. Tessa Worley of France was second and Michelle Gisin of Switzerland stood on her first FIS World Cup giant slalom podium in third.
After a stellar first run for both Shiffrin and O'Brien, who sat in fourth and seventh respectively, both struggled a bit on the boilerplate track in second run. But the Burke Mountain Academy graduates held on—linking recoveries and hammering down the hill to score solid results.
“It was definitely very challenging—the surface especially. It was super icy,” said O'Brien. “First run, I felt super happy with my run because I felt like I didn’t do anything special. It wasn’t some skiing I’ve never done before—it was just how I skied in training. To see that the speed was good enough and stacked up well in a race was cool. Second run was a total rodeo mess, but I’m glad I hung on and made it. Not so bad if it’s another personal best.”
Prior to Kranjska Gora, Nina’s best giant slalom result was 15th, which she notched in Soelden in October, and she’s been consistently in the hunt in tech events throughout the 2020-21 season—finishing 19th in the Courchevel GS and ninth in the Semmering slalom. The 23 year old knows that more top 10s are in her future and even a podium isn’t out of the question.
Though Shiffrin was bummed, she said she's "super happy for Nina...her first run was especially motivational."
AJ Hurt was having a fast first run, but went down on her hip and just missed the flip.
O'Brien and Hurt's coach, Magnus Andersson was happy with the day, despite the fact that Hurt just missed the flip. "Good day!" he said. "Step-by-step...and nice to experience the heat of starting next to some of the world's best GS skiers second run!"
