Giant Slalom, Women1

As in PyeongChang four years earlier, the women’s Alpine skiing events started with the giant slalom. Due to the postponement of the men’s downhill, the event was held on the same day, with the starting times adjusted so as not to clash with the men.

Three racers shared the wins in the six events held in the ongoing giant slalom World Cup, with Mikaela Shiffrin winning the first two races, in Sölden and Courchevel 1, while Tessa Worley won in Lienz, and Sara Hector in Courchevel 2, and also the last two races before the Games, in Kranjska Gora, and Kronzplatz. Hector also led the World Cup standings followed by Worley and Shiffrin.

The Crystal Globes in this event had been won by Viktoria Rebensburg (2018), who had retired in 2020, Mikaela Shiffrin (2019), Federica Brignone (2020), and Marta Bassino (2021), but the last two World Championships had been won by Petra Vlhová (2019) and Lara Gut-Behrami (2021). During the current season Gut-Behrami contested only two of the six races also because of a COVID-19 illness. Shiffrin was also the gold medallist from PyeongChang, with Mowinckel winning silver and Brignone taking bronze.

Skiers from 49 different nations started the race, which was a record for female Alpine skiing events. The race was started by Vlhová but she was soon overtaken by the next racer, Michelle Gisin. Brignone started next and bettered Gisin’s time by 1.21 seconds. Worley wearing bib number 4 was not able to reach Brignone, being 0.95 seconds behind. After Bassino did not finish her run, it was Hector who took the lead by 42/100ths of a second. As Shiffrin was also not able to finish the race, others took their chance with Katharina Truppe surprisingly finishing in second place, only 3/10ths behind Hector, and also Meta Hrovat (fourth), Ragnhild Mowinckel (fifth), and Nina O’Brien (sixth) bringing themselves into the top positions.

On the second run Coralie Frasse Sombet, who was 26th on the first run, set the early pace with what was finally the third best time of the second run, to finish 17th overall. Vlhová, only 13th after the first run, was not in contention and did not improve on the second run, finishing 14th overall. The second-best time on run two brought Thea Stjernesund down from 15th after run one, to a final sixth place. The best run time was set by Gut-Behrami, which was good enough for bronze as, of those in the top three after the first run, only Truppe dropped to an unfortunate fourth place, 0.08 seconds away from bronze. Brignone took silver while Hector brought down her lead to win Sweden’s first gold medal in this event since Pernilla Wiberg back in 1992. Hector (gold) and Gut-Behrami (bronze) used Head skis, while Brignone (silver) raced Rossignol and Truppe (fourth) Fischer.

After Shiffrin did not finish the first run, the second run cased more back luck for Team USA as O’Brien endured troubles shortly before the finish line. She crashed into the last gate and badly fell into the finish area. After several minutes of first-aid she was transported to hospital where she was treated for an open left tibia and fibula fracture.

Finishing 38th in this event was Aruwin Salehhuddin, who became the first ever female Winter Olympics competitor for Malaysia, and the last finisher Kiana Kryeziu achieved the same claim for her country Kosovo. Sarah Escobar was the first ever Winter Olympian from Ecuador, while Noa Szőllős and Gwyneth Ten Raa became the first ever female Alpine skier for Israel and Luxembourg, respectively.