Mikaela Shiffrin returns to GS podium after 2 years. Sara Hector wins and Paula Moltzan 2nd

SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic — Mikaela Shiffrin is back on a World Cup giant slalom podium after two years.

And she could have hardly picked a better moment to do so.

The American star finished third Saturday in the last GS before the Milan Cortina Olympics.

''It's been two years since I was on the podium in GS, and more than one year since I believed I could be on the podium in GS. It's amazing for me,'' Shiffrin said.

The race was won by defending Olympic champion Sara Hector, who held on to her opening run lead for her first victory since January 2025.

''You always have to keep working, it's so many strong girls as you can see today,'' the Swedish winner said in a course-side interview. ''I am super happy that in the end I crossed the finish line first. That's a really cool feeling.''

Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic GS gold medalist, trailed Hector by 0.23 seconds and the American shared the podium with second-placed teammate Paula Moltzan, who was 0.18 off the pace and led a strong showing by the U.S. team, with Nina O'Brien in fifth and AJ Hurt in eighth.

Six days later, she crashed in a downhill on the course that will be used for the Olympics next month and then didn't compete in GS again until the start of the 2024-25 season.

In November 2024, she sustained a puncture wound to the right side of her abdomen and severe damage to her oblique abdominal muscles in a crash at her home GS in Killington, Vermont, and subsequently suffered from lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.

This season, Shiffrin racked up three fourth places before ultimately returning to the podium Saturday, three weeks before the Olympic race in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Racing again at the Czech venue of her World Cup debut as a 15-year old in March 2011, Shiffrin called it ''a pretty special day'' to share a GS podium with Moltzan for the first time.

''To find the balance between this team spirit and the individual competitive spirit is really hard. I feel like the way our team is working right now, we are doing that,'' Shiffrin said.

''You're always wondering whether it's going to happen, but I'm patient and I'll keep waiting,'' she said. ''But it's also just really inspiring that this is where the level of my GS skiing is going into the Olympics.''

In the opening run, Hector edged out Camille Rast of Switzerland by 0.02 seconds, with GS rankings leader Julia Scheib of Austria 0.26 back in third.

Rast dropped to fourth, while Scheib skied out in the final run.

Overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone, who made a strong return to racing from a nine-month injury layoff on Tuesday, and her Italian teammate Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, sat out the event in Czechia, with a weekend of speed racing coming up in Switzerland next week ahead of their home Olympics.

A slalom on the same hill is scheduled for Sunday.