Norway's McGrath Wins Flachau Night Slalom

It will be down to the wire for the globe in the men’s slalom World Cup this season. In a season that keeps on delivering surprises, tonight’s race produced another.

The race, originally scheduled to take place in Zagreb, Croatia, thrived under the lights in front of a wild Austrian crowd. Norway’s Atle McGrath won his first-ever World Cup, followed by Olympic champion Clement Noel in France in second, 0.29 seconds off the pace, and Swiss Daniel Yule in third, .64 out.

With his victory, McGrath became one of eight men to win a World Cup slalom this season. Teammate Henrik Kristoffersen became the first to claim multiple wins last weekend in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany with his back-to-back wins. Half of those eight World Cup slalom winners have been Norwegian, including teammates Lucas Braathen (Wengen, Switzerland) and Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (Madonna di Campiglio, Italy).

After winning back-to-back slaloms in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER), Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) took the lead in the slalom World Cup standings and was looking like a hot favourite to win Flachau (AUT). However, after losing too much time on his first run due to the last roller, the Norwegian couldn’t make up the lost time in his second run and finished 16th. Johannes Strolz (AUT) took an impressive lead in the first run, finishing 0.97 seconds ahead of Atle Lie McGrath (NOR) and 1 second ahead of Olympic slalom champion, Clément Noel (FRA).

McGrath has performed extremely well at the night races so far this season. In Schladming’s (AUT) night race, he claimed his first slalom World Cup podium, finishing only 0.03 seconds behind the leader. Tonight, he comes out on top with a stellar first and second run performance to see him finish 0.29 seconds ahead of Noel. McGrath’s win makes it the first time since the 1969/70 season where four different Norwegians have won a men’s slalom race.

After two DNFs in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Noel was eager to get back into fighting form and put down a good run ahead of the finals. Finishing his first run in 3rd place, the Frenchman put down a strong second run, which put him in the hot seat. However, it wasn’t enough to secure him the victory.

With five top-10 podium finishes so far this season, Daniel Yule (SUI) has been showing he has what it takes to be there competing for the win. Nonetheless, today wasn’t his day. Finishing the first run in 4th, Yule managed to claw back one position and secured 3rd. The Swiss skier’s last victory came in Kitzbühel (AUT) in 2020.

Strolz did not seem to tackle his second run with the same confidence and ease as his first. He ended up finishing 4th, 0.66 seconds behind the top pace.

Kristoffersen maintained his lead in the slalom standings, with 371 points over teammate Lucas Braathen with 323 points. Germany’s Linus Strasser is sitting in third with 307 points, and Austria’s Manuel Feller has 301 points. With one slalom remaining at World Cup Finals, anything can happen. Swiss Marco Odermatt, who does not ski slalom, maintained his healthy lead in the overall standings, with 1,239 points heading into the double giant slalom weekend in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. 

For the Americans 

Luke Winters scored a career-best seventh place on Wednesday night in under the lights in Flachau, Austria, the final FIS Ski World Cup slalom prior to World Cup Finals.

Winters skied a solid and smart first run, sitting in 18th, a promising position to move up in the second run. He skied with tactic and confidence in the second run to gain significant time and move up the leaderboard. "First run I wasn't totally sure...in Garmisch I had some trouble, but I had a decent training block between the two races," Winters reflected. "I wasn't totally sure how I'd feel coming out of the gate first run, but I found my rhythm and had some really good sections on the first run, and kind of took that confidence into the second run and was just super focused and knew what I had to do."

With his seventh place, Winters also stamped his ticket to World Cup Finals—in which the top 25 ranked in each discipline will compete to close out the season. He ended up in a three-way tie for 24th place in the standings. "Obviously, with a little added pressure to really push it to try to get to Finals, I knew I had to do that," he said. "It feels good to also barely make Finals - I think I was tied for 24th, so even if I had gotten eighth I would not have made it, so that feels good. Psyched on my best career result and looking forward to one more chance at Finals."

Tonight’s race also marked the end of an era as one of the slalom’s most iconic racers announced his retirement. Manfred Moelgg (ITA) has decided to hang up his ski boots and call it a day on the World Cup circuit. After a long and successful career, he retires after winning three World Championship medals, three world cup victories and one slalom globe