TREMBLANT, Quebec (AP) — Petra Vlhova led Mikaela Shiffrin by five-hundredths of a second after the opening leg of a women’s World Cup giant slalom on Sunday.
Vlhova, who is from Slovakia, came into the day second to Shiffrin, an American based in Colorado, in the World Cup overall standings.
Shiffrin has won five overall titles, including the past two, while Vlhova was the champion in 2021.
Vlhova heads into the day’s second GS run with a time of 1 minute, 6.46 seconds, just ahead of Shiffrin at 1:06.51. Shiffrin is seeking to extend two career records she already owns: 21 giant slalom victories and 90 World Cup race wins.
Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland stood third after the first leg at 1:06.75.
Gut-Behrami has won two of the season’s first three giant slaloms to lead the discipline standings heading into Sunday.
Vlhova finished second in each of the past two races — to Federica Brignone of Italy in a giant slalom Saturday on Mont Tremblant, which hadn’t hosted the World Cup in 40 years, and to Shiffrin in a slalom at Killington, Vermont, last weekend.
Brignone stood sixth after Sunday’s first trip down the course.
Sara Hector of Sweden, the GS gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics last year, was ninth heading into the second leg in Mont Tremblant.
___
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
