American Paula Moltzan delivered a fairy-tale breakthrough on Saturday, winning the season-opening women’s giant slalom at the Rettenbach glacier by the narrowest of margins to claim her first-ever FIS Alpine World Cup victory.
The 32-year-old Minnesota native finished in a combined time of 2:14.82, edging Albania’s Lara Colturi by just 0.01 seconds. Germany’s Emma Aicher completed the podium 0.52 seconds back. All three athletes recorded career-best results in the race.
Moltzan, who sat fifth after the opening run, produced a composed second descent under increasingly difficult conditions. Overnight snowfall had delayed the start by half an hour, and visibility deteriorated further during the second run as snow fell and light shifted. The change in conditions upended the leaderboard: early pacesetters including Mikaela Shiffrin, Sara Hector and Camille Rast all faded.
Shiffrin, seeking her first giant-slalom win since December 2023 and a record-extending 111th career World Cup victory, had led the first run by 0.14 seconds over Hector. She dropped to seventh (+0.83). Hector finished fourth (+0.63), Italy’s Asja Zenere fifth, and Switzerland’s Camille Rast sixth.
“It feels like a fairy tale right now, pretty unreal,” Moltzan said afterward. “I can’t imagine a better start. We have put in a lot of hard work in summer.”
The victory capped a long road for Moltzan. She made her World Cup debut in 2012, was later dropped from the U.S. Ski Team, and had collected 10 podium finishes without a win across 13 seasons. She earned Olympic bronze in the team combined at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games and recently switched to Van Deer skis, the brand founded by former overall champion Marcel Hirscher. She becomes the oldest woman to record her first World Cup victory.
For Colturi, the runner-up result was the closest an Albanian athlete has come to a World Cup win. Aicher, who finished second overall last season, finally reached the giant-slalom podium after previous successes in speed events and slalom.
Defending Sölden winner and last season’s giant-slalom crystal globe holder Julia Scheib of Austria crashed out high on the course in the first run in front of a home crowd of roughly 14,600. Only one Austrian, Franziska Gritsch, advanced to the second run and finished ninth.
The men’s giant slalom, which opens the men’s 2026/27 World Cup season, is scheduled for Sunday on the same slope.
