Ljutic Gets Second Slalom Victory In A Row, Ill Hector Takes Giant Slalom Victory

In the latest round of the veterans vs rising stars dynamic that has defined this season, Wendy Holdener (SUI/Head) seemed to gain the upper hand for the old guard with a blistering second run in Sunday's Slalom in Kranjska Gora.

But Zrinka Ljutic (CRO/Atomic) was not done yet, and the 20-year-old stormed home as the final skier on the mountain to win her second World Cup race just seven days after her first.

"I'm speechless," Ljutic said in the finish area in front of the boisterous Croatian fans who had made the trip across the border to the Slovenian resort. "I didn't know how well Wendy skied," Ljutic admitted. "I had my own idea and I was really focusing on myself. I decided the tempo of the run, how I wanted to ski, and I really tried to stick to that vision."

Other than their 11-year age difference, nothing could separate Ljutic and Holdener on their first run down the Podkoren, and the pair stepped it up even more in the afternoon, both finishing over a second ahead of the rest of the field.

The 31-year-old Holdener was the first of the two to ski in the second run and she flew down the piste with the fastest run of the afternoon to that point, throwing down the gauntlet to Ljutic.

Despite a short delay and the pressure of the cheering crowd, Ljutic somehow lifted her game even higher, keeping her nerve and narrowly increasing her advantage in the first three splits before holding on to win by 0.16 seconds.

"I was trying to push everywhere," Zjutic said of how she managed to overcome Holdener. "The only thing I thought I could do better was let go in the finish a bit earlier, and I was like, 'I hope it's enough', and it was enough."

A day after 32-year-old Sara Hector (SWE/Head) held off teenager Lara Colturi (ALB/Blizzard) to win the Giant Slalom on the same piste, Ljutic chalked up one for the newcomers and took the lead in the Slalom standings in the process.

"Especially now after this nice result in Semmering (her win last Sunday), I had a big appetite," Ljutic said. "I obviously wanted to repeat it, and I felt, in some sense, powerful and dominant."

Holdener, who was ecstatic in the finish area after her run, must have thought she had one foot on the top step of the podium, but the Swiss veteran will take second place all the same as she continues her comeback from injury.

"I'm satisfied," Holdener said of her near-miss. "I attacked, I gave everything. It's an amazing fight. It was difficult but I like it that way. It was a nice course setting for me."

Holdener has had the misfortune of overlapping with two of the greatest Slalom skiers of all time, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) and Petra Vlhova (SVK/Rossignol), resulting in 35 of her 37 World Cup Slalom podiums being second or third.

With those two stars absent and the field wide open, the Swiss veteran has now watched Ljutic match her career Slalom victory total in a week, but in the process, a new rivalry has emerged.

"I feel in good shape and of course a podium is amazing," said Swenn Larsson, who shared another podium with Holdener two years after their famous joint victory in Killington. "I'm super happy but I still feel I have so much more that I want to get out there."

That was arguably Ljutic's mindset just a couple of weeks ago, but now she is now in a different stratosphere, delivering victories not only for herself and her team, but for her fans as well.

"I think they had a good show and they also got a good reward," Ljutic said of the Croatian supporters who made the trip to watch her. "I think these moments, we'll never forget."

The day before, after spending much of the week in her sick bed and then inadvertently revealing her meal of choice between runs, Sara Hector (SWE) might have discovered not one but two secrets to success.

Despite being less than 100 percent healthy, the 32-year-old Swede held off a spirited challenge from the next generation of World Cup stars to dominate Saturday's Giant Slalom in Kranjska Gora and win by nearly a second and a half.

The Olympic Giant Slalom champion won her second race of the season, using a scintillating first run to set up her victory ahead of 18-year-old Lara Colturi (ALB/Blizzard, +1.42s) and 23-year-old Alice Robinson (NZL/Salomon, +1.52s).

"Oh my God, crazy," said Hector, who was still coughing during her post-race interviews. "I couldn't believe it this morning, that this could happen. I was resting a lot this week, so maybe it helped a little bit. When you have been training a lot, resting is a good recipe."

And rest wasn't the only successful recipe for Hector, as she also revealed, after mishearing a question in her victory interview, another secret weapon that fuelled her between the two runs: a sandwich with scrambled eggs.

With the 100-point score, Hector moved into the lead in both the Giant Slalom and Overall World Cup standings as the new year begins, and is well-positioned in both races with Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) still recovering from injury and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head) down on her form of a season ago.

In a difficult first run on hard, icy snow on the Podkoren piste, Hector, Colturi and Thea Louise Stjernesund (NOR/Rossignol) were the only top skiers to find the right combination of aggression and technique, though Hector was in a class of her own, leading second-placed Colturi by 1.13 seconds at the halfway stage.

"These conditions really fit me very well," Hector admitted.

Almost everyone else struggled to find their grip in the first run, including the two most decorated skiers in the field: Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol), who went down and out on her inside ski midway down the course to register a DNF; and Gut-Behrami, who lost time all the way down the piste and found herself nearly a second and three-quarters behind the Swedish leader, albeit in fifth position.

In the second run, Julia Scheib (AUT/Rossignol) threw down the gauntlet with the fastest time from equal 13th, taking the lead and holding it for the next nine skiers until Robinson overtook her.

Scheib ended up fourth, 0.34 seconds off the podium, while speed star Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic) skied the second-best run of the afternoon session to finish fifth.

As the race reached its climax with the final five skiers, Gut-Behrami couldn't take advantage of a course set by her father and coach, ending up sixth, while Stjernesund dropped four places from third to seventh.

One-time phenom Robinson, who won three World Cup races as a teenager and has found her way back to close to that form in the last season and a half, took the lead and guaranteed herself a place on the podium when Stjernesund faltered.

"I knew I could have done better on the first run," said Robinson, who like Gut-Behrami after her, didn't quite take advantage of a course set by her coach in the morning session. "I think I skied solid but was just too conservative.

"Second run, I didn't want to think as much. I just wanted to attack and go for it and not overthink anything. I think I found a good balance of pushing and also being smart with the tactics."

With two racers left, Colturi aimed to emulate fellow youngster Zrinka Ljutic's (CRO/Atomic) maiden victory last Sunday, and skied wisely beyond her years to overtake Robinson, although she was ultimately no match for Hector.

"It just feels amazing," Colturi said of her second World Cup podium, her first in Giant Slalom, and the first in GS for Albania. "I was feeling really confident in myself in the last week and finally I've made two really good runs."

As for holding her nerve in the second run, given the high stakes, she said simply: "I was just thinking (of) having fun like always, and doing my best."

Hector, skiing last and with a huge advantage, was error-free and never troubled as she powered away from Colturi's splits with the third-fastest second run to confirm her seventh World Cup victory and second in the Slovenian resort after her 2022 triumph.