Next weekend a Giant Slalom and a Slalom World Cup races are going to take place in Kranjska Gora. The Slovenian ski resort will host the two women’s World Cup races that were called off in Maribor because of a lack of snow and unfavorable weather forecasts.
Kranjska Gora is an alpine resort in Slovenia, near the mountains and glacial lakes of Triglav National Park. The Upper Sava Valley, one of the most beautiful Alpine valleys, lies in the north-westernmost part of Slovenia, right next to the tri-border with Austria and Italy.
Giant Slalom. Saturday, January 8th, 1st run 9:30, 2nd run 12:30 (CET)
Slalom. Sunday, January 9th, 1st run 9:30, 2nd run 12:30 (CET)
Last season Marta Bassino won both Giant Slaloms held in Kranjska Gora.
In the first race, Bassino attacked both runs to lead after the first run by 0.23 seconds and extended her dominance even further in the second run, to pick up the victory by a 0.80 margin.
Tessa Worley turned in the fastest second run to jump into the podium, finishing in second place.
Michelle Gisin ended the first run in second place and finished in third place at the end of the day.
Marta Bassino won her second Giant Slalom in two days ahead of Michelle Gisin and Meta Hrovat. She became the second woman from Italy to complete a Giant Slalom double in a World Cup season after 3-time Olympic champion Deborah Compagnoni in 1997 (Zwiesel, Germany).
Mikaela Shiffrin has won 72 World Cup events, ranking her in third place all-time behind Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82).
She missed the last World Cup Giant Slalom in Lienz following a positive Covid-19 test.
In 2018, Shiffrin won the Giant Slalom and the Slalom World Cup events in Kranjska Gora. She is one of three women to win both technical events in Kranjska Gora in a single season, alongside Mateja Svet (1988) and Lise-Marie Morerod (1976).
Shiffrin (14) can become the fourth woman to claim at least 15 World Cup wins in the giant slalom, after Vreni Schneider (20), Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16), and Tessa Worley (15).
Tessa Worley won the last women's Giant Slalom World Cup event, in Lienz on 28 December, becoming the third woman to win as many as 15 Giant Slalom World Cup events. Only Vreni Schneider (20) and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16) won more Giant Slalom races in the World Cup.
Tessa Worley can win consecutive Giant Slalom events for the first time since November-December 2016 when she won in Killington and Sestriere.
The French racer won the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora in 2012 and recorded second places in 2018 and 2021.
Worley has finished on the podium 33 times in the World Cup, all in the Giant Slalom.
Sara Hector recorded a second and a first place in the World Cup Giant Slaloms in Courchevel and finished third in Lienz. The only Swedish woman to finish on the podium in a World Cup event in Kranjska Gora was Frida Hansdotter, who won the slalom in 2014 and finished second in the slalom in 2018.
Marta Bassino has won the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe last season. She was the only woman to win more than one World Cup Giant Slalom event in the 2020-2021 season. She claimed her victories in Sölden, Courchevel and Kranjska Gora (2). She failed to finish the first run in the season opener in Sölden and in Courchevel (1) but finished in third place in the second race held in Courchevel on 22 December.
This season, Petra Vlhová finished in the top five in each of the four women's World Cup Giant Slalom events (3rd, 4th, 5th, 2nd). Vlhová has won five Giant Slalom races, the last one in Jasná on 7 March 2021.
Alice Robinson won the Giant Slalom in Kranjska Gora in 2020 when she was 18 years old.
Alice Robinson is the first woman to claim three World Cup Giant Slalom wins before turning 20 years old since Mateja Svet in the late 1980s. She has claimed five World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom: three wins and two second places.
Robinson can become the second alpine skier representing New Zealand to win four World Cup events, equaling Claudia Riegler (4, all slalom).
Lara Gut-Behrami, won the women's GS gold at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo. It was her first world-level victory in this discipline since a World Cup win in Sölden on 22 October 2016. Her win in 2016 was the last World Cup Giant Slalom win by a Swiss woman.
Michelle Gisin finished third and second in the two Giant Slalom World Cup events in Kranjska Gora in 2021. Gisin can become the first Swiss woman to win a World Cup event in Kranjska Gora since Vreni Schneider won the Giant Slalom in 1991.
In 2020, in the last women's slalom held in Kranjska Gora, Petra Vlhova won her third slalom in a row. The Slovakian secured the 56th Zlata Lisica or “Golden Fox” Trophy awarded to the best competitor among the weekend’s two races.
Wendy Holdener (SUI) finished 0.24 seconds behind Vlhova in second place followed by Katharina Truppe (AUT) by 0.89.
Petra Vlhová has been almost unbeatable in slalom, winning four out of five slalom races this season. She is leading the Slalom standings after winning in Levi (2), Lienz, and Zagreb, and finished second behind Mikaela Shiffrin in the Killington slalom. She recorded a 16th slalom win in Zagreb, continuing a winning strike of 51 podiums.
Since the start of 2020, Vlhová has won 11 of the 17 slalom events held in the women's World Cup. Mikaela Shiffrin (3), Katharina Liensberger (2) and Michelle Gisin (1) won the other six.
Mikaela Shiffrin has won 46 World Cup slalom events, a joint-record for most World Cup wins in a single discipline alongside Ingemar Stenmark's 46 in the Giant Slalom.
She finished on the podium in the last nine World Cup slalom events she competed in, since the fourth place in Zagreb on 3 January 2021. Shiffrin finished in the top two in eight of these nine events.
In her last 56 World Cup slalom participations, Shiffrin finished on the podium 52 times (37 wins).
Katharina Liensberger, last season's winner of the slalom crystal globe, finished second in the last slalom of the year held in Lienz and third in the first one of 2022 held in Zagreb.
She recorded her last World Cup Slalom win in Lenzerheide on 20 March 2021.
Wendy Holdener finished third in 2018 and second in 2020 in the slalom event in Kranjska Gora.
The Swiss has 28 podium finishes in World Cup slalom events, but has yet to claim her first victory. This is currently the record for most World Cup podiums in a single discipline without winning. Only two women have finished second in a World Cup slalom event more often than Holdener (13): Frida Hansdotter (17) and Pernilla Wiberg (14). Holdener's 15 third places in this discipline are already most for a woman.
She can become the first Swiss woman to win a World Cup slalom in Kranjska Gora since Erika Hess in 1983.
Switzerland's only women's World Cup Slalom win in the last 20 years was achieved by Michelle Gisin in Semmering on 29 December 2020. She finished third in Lienz on 29 December.
Anna Swenn-Larsson is hoping to return to a World Cup slalom podium. The Swede finished in the top-three of a World Cup slalom event on four occasions, most recently a second place in Flachau on 14 January 2020.
Sweden's most recent slalom victory in the World Cup was achieved by Frida Hansdotter in Flachau on 10 January 2017.
Lena Dürr finished in the third position in both World Cup Slalom events held in Levi on 20 and 21 November. The last German woman to win a World Cup Slalom event was Maria Höfl-Riesch, who won in Levi on 10 November 2012.
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