Swedish skier Hector dominates GS; Shiffrin finishes 7th

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Swedish skier Sara Hector dominated a women’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday and overtook Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin on top of the discipline standings.

Hector posted the fastest time in both runs as she extended her first-run lead to a huge .96 seconds over the runner-up, former French world champion Tessa Worley.

“I am just in shock, it feels so awesome,” Hector said after her third career win and second in the last 10 days.

World Cup GS champion Marta Bassino placed third, while Valérie Grenier came fourth as the Canadian skier matched her career best World Cup result.

Shiffrin improved from 14th after the opening run to seventh, 2.05 seconds behind Hector, who now leads the American by 46 points in the GS season standings.

“It’s really unbelievable. I felt really good but then you never know. I felt, like, maybe I am too round because it was feeling easy,” said Hector, who became the first Swedish skier since Jessica Lindell-Vikarby eight seasons ago to top the GS standings.

Shiffrin had won the first two giant slaloms this season and was runner-up to Hector in the third but had to sit out the next GS in Austria last week following a positive COVID-19 test.

The American, however, stretched her lead in the overall World Cup standings to 135 points from Petra Vlhova, who finished 15th.

Some more pre-race favorites struggled on the challenging Podkoren course, which is an annual stop on the men’s circuit.

World champion Lara Gut-Behrami, who was racing for the first time in nearly four weeks following a coronavirus infection, was only 17th after the opening run but improved to fifth.

Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan had a nasty looking crash in her second run but “she’s OK,” the U.S. ski team said on Twitter.

No spectators were allowed at the race, which had been moved from another Slovenian resort, Maribor, because of a lack snow. A slalom on the same slope is scheduled for Sunday.

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