On the Hermann Maier track, surrounded by nearly 15,000 burning Austrian fans, the local Katharina Liensberger made her supporters roar. The reigning Olympic champion in the specialty crushed the competition by being the most consistent and aggressive of the skiers at the start. She will try to win, in the middle of the evening, the fourth World Cup slalom of her career – she has 17 podiums on her CV, 16 between the poles – and the first since Are in March 2022.
At 8:45 p.m., Switzerland will have three cards to play to claim victory and the podium, in one of the most beautiful slaloms on the planetary calendar. Wendy Holdener (2nd), in great form, ranked 2nd at 0”75. Mélanie Meillard is 5th, 4 tenths behind her leader. Camille Rast (8th at 1”50) can also get on the box in the event of an exploit on the second route.
Among the Swiss skiers, we find Sara Hector (Sweden/3rd), Lena Dürr (Germany/4th), Emma Aicher (Germany/6th) and Anna Swenn Larsson (Sweden/7th). Further back, the Swiss Aline Danioth and Elena Stoffel, relegated to more than three and a half seconds, will not make the cut.
-Michelle Gisin, who had announced a few hours earlier on Instagram that this slalom would be her 103rd and final career, had a huge smile on her face in the starting gate. The 31-year-old Obwalden still had it in the finish area, even if it went moderately well on the track, as always this season in the short turn discipline. She will still make a final start in the middle of the evening, thanks to her 14th time (after the passage of 35 competitors) at 2”38.
The surprise at the start of the evening was the big mistake of the prodigy Zrinka Ljutic. The almost 21-year-old Croatian, who had won the last two slaloms each time with the best time in both rounds, made an almost eliminatory error at the start of the course, which cost her dearly in the final count. The wearer of the red bib as leader of the specialty, however, was able to get back on track and avoid her first elimination of the season. But his delay of almost four seconds cost him qualification.
