Austrian skier Scheib dominates World Cup season opener to beat runner-up Moltzan; Shiffrin 4th

SÖLDEN, Austria — Right when Austrian skier Julia Scheib started to celebrate her dominating victory in the season-opening women’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday, the sun came out for a fitting atmosphere.

It had not only been a shining performance by Scheib in front of a record home crowd of 15,900, though, as Prior Lake’s Paula Moltzan in second, Mikaela Shiffrin in fourth, and Nina O’Brien in sixth led a strong showing by the U.S. ski team, which had seven racers in total ranked inside the top 20.

Scheib built on her big first-run lead of 1.28 seconds to win the race by 0.58, giving the Austrian women’s team its first victory in a World Cup GS since Eva-Maria Brem triumphed in a race in Slovakia in March 2016.

Lara Gut-Behrami finished 1.11 behind in third, and Shiffrin trailed by 1.42.

“A load of thousands of kilos has dropped off my shoulders, I was so relieved to see the green light,” said Scheib, who had not won a World Cup race before but finished third in the season opener last year.

“Now I am just happy, I mean, to win the first race in front of my home crowd is awesome,” said Scheib, adding she had not expected to win, even with her first-run advantage in overcast conditions.

“No way, my feeling was not that good, but maybe that is a good sign for the next races.”

Moltzan said she was “really excited” with matching her career-best result.

“I knew I was skiing well coming into the race, but skiing well in training and skiing well in the race are two different aspects of the sport,” said Moltzan, who won GS bronze at the world championships last February and had been runner-up in a World Cup race twice before.

Moltzan and Scheib had already dueled the week before the race, when the Austrian and American teams shared a training session on the race hill.

“She was quite fast. We were kind of neck and neck all week, so for her and I to be 1-2, that feels pretty good,” said Moltzan, acknowledging the mistake in her second run might have cost her the victory.

“Maybe without the mistake, it would have been a lot closer, but you can’t go back in time,” Moltzan said. “I have no regret, I’m so happy to start this season on the podium.”

“For me, I was so focused on them, just strong turns, strong skiing,” Shiffrin said. “Sometimes I feel strong and it’s not that fast and sometimes I feel OK and it’s pretty fast, so I’m still kind of learning where my skiing stands. But today I felt like it was all connected.”

Shiffrin, who is the 2018 Olympic GS champion and holds the women’s record of 22 World Cup wins in the discipline, suffered from lingering post-traumatic stress disorder following a crash at her home giant slalom in Killington, Vermont, in November.

She sustained a puncture wound and severe damage to her oblique muscles, and said she was not back at 100 percent yet.

“I am getting closer. The final step is adding the race mentality,” Shiffrin said.

O’Brien added to the team’s result by improving from 16th after the first run to sixth by leading the second run, ahead of teammates Moltzan and AJ Hurt, as five of the seven fastest times in the final run were posted by American racers.

The Italian team had already lost last year’s race winner and overall champion Federica Brignone and former GS champion Marta Bassino through injuries.

A men’s giant slalom on the same hill is scheduled for Sunday. The women next race a slalom in Levi, Finland, on Nov. 15.