In the first run on a course designed by her father and coach Amir as part of the the World Cup’s rotation of course setters, Ljutic mastered the offset gates to post the fastest time by more than half a second, with only Duerr (+0.51s) and Camille Rast (SUI/Head, +0.98s) within even a second of the Croatian’s leading time.
As the final skier in the second run for the first time in her World Cup career, and having already finished second four times in 2024 in search of her first victory, Ljutic had every reason to let the occasion get the better of her.
“In the start hut, I was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been,” she recalled.
But the youngster showed she was more than up for the challenge by recording the fastest second run of the field, extending her lead over Duerr at every split despite having doubts over how well she was skiing.
“I felt all over the place, and I really didn’t know if I’m fast enough, so I tried to push all the way down,” Ljutic said. “I really wanted to take on this chance, and I did.”
She did indeed, winning by such a huge margin that she couldn’t even comprehend it.
“I just saw that I was first and that’s all I cared about, I just wanted to take the win home,” Ljutic said of what she thought when she crossed the line. “And then I saw the 1.75 and thought, ‘What? That doesn’t make sense.'”
In the absence of injured stars Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) and Petra Vlhova (SVK/Rossignol), Ljutic became the second successive debut winner of a World Cup Slalom race, following Rast’s triumph in Killington last month.
Swiss
