Mikaela Shiffrin secured a spot on the podium at a World Cup giant slalom event for the first time in two years on Saturday in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czechia. Shiffrin finished third in the last giant slalom race before the Milan Cortina Olympics. The race was won by defending Olympic champion Sara Hector, who maintained her lead from the first run to claim her first victory since January 2025.
Expressing her joy in a post-race interview, the Swedish champion acknowledged the tough competition, stating, “You always have to keep working, it’s so many strong girls as you can see today. I am super happy that in the end I crossed the finish line first. That’s a really cool feeling.” Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic giant slalom gold medalist, finished 0.23 seconds behind Hector, while her American teammate Paula Moltzan took second place, just 0.18 seconds off the winning pace.
Canada’s Britt Richardson also had a strong performance, securing a ninth-place finish with a time of 2:27.05, 3.19 seconds behind Hector’s winning time. Shiffrin, who holds the women’s record for most career World Cup giant slalom wins with 22, had not achieved a top-three result in the discipline since finishing as runner-up in a race in Slovakia in January 2024.
After a series of setbacks, including a crash and injuries, Shiffrin returned to the podium on Saturday, just three weeks before the upcoming Olympic race in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Moltzan, aiming for her first career win, earned her third podium finish of the season, leading a strong U.S. team performance with Nina O’Brien finishing fifth and AJ Hurt in eighth place.
In the initial run, Hector narrowly beat out Camille Rast of Switzerland by 0.02 seconds, with Austria’s Julia Scheib, the GS rankings leader, trailing in third by 0.26 seconds. Rast slipped to fourth place, while Scheib skied out in the final run. Notably, overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone and her Italian teammate Sofia Goggia opted out of the Czechia event to prepare for speed racing in Switzerland ahead of the upcoming Olympics.
The weekend in Czechia will also feature a slalom event on the same hill scheduled for Sunday.