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KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Canadian skier Valerie Grenier won her second career World Cup giant slalom Saturday, a year after she triumphed at the same Slovenian resort.
In the rain-marred race, Mikaela Shiffrin finished in ninth position, nine days after the American won the previous GS in Austria.
Saturday’s result was the American’s worst in 15 giant slaloms since finishing 13th in Killington, Vermont, in November 2022.
Looming in fourth, Grenier posted the best time in the second run and saw the three fastest racers from the opening leg all fail to beat her.
“I feel like I have no words. I am just so happy, so proud. It’s crazy,” Grenier said.
Grenier also won the race last year, when she became the first Canadian to win a women’s World Cup giant slalom in 49 years. She ended the season with a GS podium at the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Andorra.
Grenier, who was the junior world champion in downhill in 2016, has no World Cup podiums in other disciplines.
Lara Gut-Behrami came closest as the Swiss skier trailed Grenier by 0.37 seconds.
Federica Brignone was 0.51 back in third and the Italian remained in the lead of the GS season standings.
Petra Vlhova, who edged out Brignone by 0.02 to lead after the first run, dropped to fourth.
Grenier showed her strength in the opening run when she posted the fastest times in two of the four sections of the Podkoren course. However, she lost nearly three-quarters of a second due to a mistake before entering the finish pitch.
“After the first run I was pretty mad at myself for the mistake,” said Grenier, adding she told herself before the final run: “Now I wanted to win.”
Shiffrin avoided major mistakes in what seemed like a rather conservative first run as the world champion from the United States lost time on then-leader Vlhova at each checkpoint and finished 0.98 off the pace in seventh.
Shiffrin lost more time in the second run, posting only the 22nd time from the 26 racers that finished.
Aiming for her sixth title this season, Shiffrin still leads the overall standings, though runner-up Brignone closed the gap to 232 points.
The lower part of the Podkoren course was softened by persistent rainfall since Friday afternoon.
It was the first race of 2024 for the women, who usually start a new year in Zagreb but the Croatian resort was left off the calendar this season.
A slalom on the same hill is scheduled for Sunday.
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