Paula Moltzan won the season-opening giant slalom in Sölden on Saturday, her first World Cup victory. She beat Lara Colturi by a hundredth of a second and Emma Aicher by 0.52, on a Rettenbach glacier where the light decided the race.
One hundredth for a first win
The clock hesitated, then decided: 2:14.82 for Paula Moltzan, 2:14.83 for Lara Colturi. The American had waited through nine podiums, five in giant slalom and four in slalom. A year ago, on this same hill, she finished second, 0.58 behind Julia Scheib.
She had built her career the hard way. Season after season, she collected places of honour and lent her runs to the team events. On Saturday, the work finally paid.
Fifth after the first run, she attacked the second at full speed. Fastest in the first sector, 0.64 ahead at the second split: the win looked safe. The lower section took almost all of it back. One hundredth remained, enough to take the leader’s seat and keep it.
Moltzan races on Van Deer skis this season. She is the first American other than Mikaela Shiffrin to win a World Cup giant slalom since Lindsey Vonn, in Åre, in December 2015.
Colturi, so close
Lara Colturi earned her eighth podium without a win. She had never come closer: her smallest margin to the winner had been 0.55, in the Gurgl slalom in November 2024. Sixth after the morning run, she posted the third-fastest second run.
Colturi switched to Head skis this summer. At the FIS presentation on Friday, she said the decision had been an easy one. Her first race proved her right. A one-hundredth margin is not new in Sölden: Tanja Poutiainen beat Kathrin Zettel by the same gap in 2009.
© SPP Sport Press Photo. /Alamy Live News
Aicher, the speed racer who crashed the party
Emma Aicher ranked only 23rd in the giant slalom standings. She owed her bib 16 to her overall ranking: a FIS rule moves racers with at least 500 overall points into the early start group. Ninth after the first run, she skied a flawless second. Her final sector, by far the fastest of the day, briefly put her in the lead.
The German had already reached the podium in downhill, super-G and slalom. Giant slalom was the missing piece.
Flat light in the afternoon
The day began at −7 °C, after a night of snow. The start was pushed back half an hour so crews could finish preparing the course, according to Eurosport. On a hard surface and in good visibility, Mikaela Shiffrin led the first run, 0.14 ahead of Sara Hector and 0.37 ahead of Camille Rast.
By 1:30 p.m., the sky had closed in. Flat light, mist and a few flakes left the late starters skiing almost blind. Hector had the 22nd-fastest second run, Rast the 21st, Shiffrin the 27th. The morning leader finished seventh. On Friday, she had told fans not to bet too heavily on her in Sölden, which she described as another step in her preparation.
The early starters, by contrast, still had a readable course. Maryna Gasienica-Daniel, 29th after the first run, posted the fastest second run in 1:06.16. She sat in the leader’s seat for a long time and finished ninth, 20 places higher. Asja Zenere, 16th in the morning, finished fifth with the second-fastest run of the afternoon.
Comebacks and setbacks
Julia Scheib, the defending giant slalom champion, never reached the finish. Fastest of all at the first split, she made an inside-ski mistake and was thrown off the course. She got up unhurt.
Petra Vlhová made her first World Cup start since January 2024, her only race in between being the Olympic slalom in Cortina last February. Eleventh after the first run, the Slovak faded in the second and finished 23rd. Britt Richardson took the hardest fall in the standings: fourth in the morning, she made a big mistake on the lower section and finished 27th.
Sunday, the men’s giant slalom, at 10 a.m. local time. The calendar
Levi, slaloms on 14 and 15 November. Levi waits for the cold