Marta Bassino wins opening race in Sölden

The giant slalom race on the Rettenbach glacier was opened by Wendy Holdener, which was considered a small miracle after she had injured herself in Saas-Fee in September. Her final rank of 27 today can understandably be forgiven - it was quite an achievement that she had made it to the start. Today's winner Marta Bassino started with the number 2 and set the best time of the first run with a fabulous run. Only Federica Brignone managed to follow her to some extent and set the second best time of the first run. The Norwegian Mina Holt Fürstmann was able to keep up with the two best. At the same time Michelle Gisin and last year's winner Alice Robinson were well placed with a gap of more than one second, closely followed by Lara Gut-Behrami. For the German team, the start was a debacle. After the withdrawal of Viktoria Rebensburg the chances for the Germans were already bad anyway, the fact that none of the four racers could qualify for the second run sealed the early exit for the German team. With a gap of more than two seconds to Marta Bassino, Petra Vlhova also failed to start.

With the fastest run in the second run, the Slovakian was able to work her way back to the front and reduce the gap, which earned her the third place on the podium. For the Austrians it went mediocre to mixed. What started with mediocre times in the first run did not improve in the second run. As the best Austrian, Katharina Truppe made it to 15th place with a gap of a proud 3.83 seconds. With the further ranks 17 for Stephanie Brunner, 19 for Ramona Siebenhofer and 24 for Franziska Gritsch, Austria's women's team has nothing to cheer about. Annoyed will be the young talented New Zealander and last year's winner of the race Alice Robinson. From a hopeful position - 4th best time of the first run together with Michelle Gisin - she starts into the second run, but she made a serious mistake in the steep slope, which led to a massive brakeman that cost her what felt like 2 seconds, which catapulted the young New Zealander back to 12th final place. There would have been much more in it. In the end, the two leading Italians were on top, who drove the lead home sovereignly and thus an Italian double victory. A small exclamation mark was set by the American Paula Moltzan with bib number 62 with the third best time of the second run and a tenth final place - a new glimmer of hope for the Americans?