Sweden's Sara Hector made it three wins this season in Giant Slalom and also two on the bounce with victory, overcoming Petra Vlhova on the second run with Tessa Worley taking third. The top five was rounded out by Federica Brignone and Mikaela Shiffrin.
Petra Vlhova had held the lead after the first run 0.34 ahead of Hector but the Swedish racer pulled in back on the second run to win by 0.15. Hector had put in a blinding second run to take the green light when she crossed the finish line. Worley was leading in the finish when Hector came down but Hector had extended her advantage from the first run by over half a second.
With twenty racers having gone down the course before her, Vlhova was the last racer down and she was unable to deal with the conditions as well as Hector. Hector explained after her run: “Crazy! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw I was that fast when I came to the finish. Incredible,” Hector said. “There are so many good skiers I’m definitely not unbeatable. But now I’ve been fast so that’s really, really cool.”
Hector is on a real role at the moment as she starts to look at the Olympics. Two wins in a row, at Kranjska Gora and Kronplatz sets her up nicely for the Olympic Giant Slalom on February 7.
Having waited seven years since winning in Kuhtai in 2015 to register her second win on the World Cup, in Courchevel in December 2021. Hector explained that her change in outlook towards her racing is what is behind her improvement: “I think for me the most important is to really feel calm…so I can focus. I’m easily wound up and then I’m having problems,” Hector said. “It took me a long time to understand what I need. Now I know much more about what I need and that’s been cool to find out.”
With this improvement Hector now leads the Giant Slalom standings by 95 points ahead of Worley and 101 ahead of Shiffrin.
For the Quinn Estates sponsored Alex Tilley, the 11 weeks that she was away from the racing ended with her looking to get back to the racing. It was looking very promising before she got late in the line and came out on the steep section.
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