Italian skier Federica Brignone wins, Mikaela Shiffrin is 25th in her first GS race after injury

Italian skier Federica Brignone won the first World Cup giant slalom after taking gold at the world championships on Friday, while Mikaela Shiffrin finished 25th in the American’s first race in the discipline in nearly 12 weeks.

Brignone, who was ill over the past few days, beat runner-up Alice Robinson of New Zealand by 0.40 seconds, eight days after they also finished 1-2 in the GS at the worlds. Robinson remained in the lead of the discipline standings.

“I am feeling better since yesterday and I knew it was possible to make two good runs and this is what I tried today,” Brignone said.

“The first run I didn’t ski so good on the first flat, the second run I tried to keep the rhythm more high before this flat part and just to arc every single turn,” the Italian added. “This was the only thing I was thinking.”

Thea Louise Stjernesund came 1.57 behind in third. The Norwegian missed a medal at the worlds when she finished one-hundredth of a second behind Paula Moltzan of the United States.

Motlzan stood third after the opening run but dropped to sixth after she came wide in a left turn in her second run and had to brake.

Defending overall champion Lara Gut-Behrami skied out off the course near the end of her first run.

Shiffrin, who trailed by 2.89 seconds in 18th after the opening run, finished 4.65 seconds off the lead.

The American holder of a record 99 World Cup wins hadn’t raced in giant slalom since suffering severe trauma to her oblique muscles and a deep puncture wound during a GS crash in Killington, Vermont in November.

“I do not yet feel entirely myself… but I do feel enough of myself to be here… and for now, that is enough,” Shiffrin posted on Instagram on the eve of Friday’s race.

It was the first race after the worlds, where Shiffrin paired with downhill world champion Breezy Johnson to win the team combined and finished fifth in the slalom, but sat out the giant slalom because of “PTSD-esque” fears.

Because of her injury absence, Shiffrin has dropped to 11th on the ranking list that determines the start order for World Cup GS races, losing her place among the top seven skiers who get the most favorable start numbers.

Shiffrin got bib No. 8 for Friday’s race, which was only her third giant slalom start in 13 months.

After hurting her left knee in a downhill crash in January 2024, she reduced her schedule to only racing in slaloms for the remainder of her 2023-24 campaign. This season, she finished fifth in the season-opening GS in Austria in October before the crash in Killington happened.

Shiffrin has won a women’s record 22 giant slaloms in her career and took the season discipline title in 2019 and 2023.

Friday’s race was a replacement for a GS that was canceled in Tremblant, Quebec, in December. Another GS is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a slalom the next day.

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