Lara Gut-Behrami claimed the World Cup season-opening giant slalom at Soelden on Saturday with American star Mikaela Shiffrin in sixth.
“Yesterday when I drew number one, I was really happy, but in the morning I was a little bit nervous,” the winner said.
“It was the first time for me to start the season as the first one starting. And I paid for that a little bit in the first run.”
The 32-year-old Swiss produced a storming second run, jumping from fourth to first in the standings with a time of 2mins 18.94sec.
“The second run, I felt again that everything was normal, and I could do what I wanted.”
Her 38th World Cup win meant Gut-Behrami joined Slovenian Tina Maze as the only women to have won three times in Soelden.
Italian Federica Brignone led after the first run but was pipped to the top of the podium by two-hundredths of a second as she recorded a time of 2:18.96.
“For sure it burns because of the two-hundredths, but that’s skiing,” mused the runner-up, who held a half second lead following her impressive first run.
The podium for the World Cup curtain-raiser was rounded off by Slovak Petra Vlhova, with a time of 2:19.08.
“It’s good to start with a podium in the first race of the season, but of course I could be a little bit higher on the podium,” said the 28-year-old, who earned nine podiums in last year’s World Cup.
Shiffrin, the most successful skier in World Cup history, began the new season with a sixth place, slipping one spot in her second runs.
The 28-year-old American, a five-time overall World Cup winner with a record 88 victories, finished 1.40 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.
“A little messy in some spots, but I liked my mentality going into the second run better,” said Shiffrin. “A little bit more trying for race mode, I was just not able to execute perfectly.”
There will not be much respite for the snow of Soelden as the men’s giant slalom takes place on Sunday with Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt among the favourites after his victory in Tyrol last year.
