Lena Dürr finished in the top ten in a giant slalom for the first time in her career. The 34-year-old finished sixth at the Alpine Ski World Cup in Copper Mountain. After the first run she was still in fourth place and was even in line for a podium finish. At the start of the Olympic winter, Dürr finished 14th in Sölden, Austria.
New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, second in the World Championships in Saalbach, won ahead of Julia Scheib from Austria, who surprisingly won the first giant slalom of the Olympic winter in Sölden. Slalom specialist Dürr, who was only 0.36 seconds short of the podium, missed her 18th jump on the podium after a strong performance.
For Emma Aicher, however, things didn’t work out at all. Coming in 47th (+4.10 seconds), the 22-year-old clearly missed the second round, and Fabiana Dorigo (39th/+3.24) and Jessica Hilzinger (41st/+3.46) also didn’t make it into the top 30. Ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) had big problems at home and had to settle for 14th place (+2.08).
Dürr, who had recently achieved top 10 results in the slalom races in Levi (4th) and Gurgl (7th), came 14th in Sölden and now achieved the Olympic standard. On Sunday (6 p.m. and 9 p.m./Eurosport) a slalom is on the program in Copper Mountain, Dürr gets another chance for a sense of success in the USA.