Sweden’s Maria Pietilae-Holmner had a 0.21-second lead after the
first run but ran into trouble at the bottom of the course and was
forced to back track for a missed gate. She finished 2.91 seconds off
the winning time in eighth.
Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon led all North Americans in seventh
place after moving up from 19th in the first run with the third-fast-est second run time. It was her second top- 10 result of the season
and her best career slalom finish. Teammate Erin Mielzynski finished
13th for a career high.
“Both courses were pretty difficult and irregular, which left a lot of
space for those who attacked it,” said Gagnon, who started with bib
No. 31.“For the second run, I just gave it my best. There was a lot of
fog, but that doesn’t really matter in slalom because you basically just
need to see the next gate in front of you. There was wind as well, but
not enough to disturb the race.”
Stiegler was the only U.S. skier to reach the second run after finish-
ing 13th in the first run. She lost her rhythm early in the second run
and was disqualified after missing a gate.
“It was pretty gnarly up there,” said U.S. coach Trevor Wagner. “
Visibility was definitely not easy at the top. Resi had an incredible first
run and was skiing exactly like she has been in training. It was really
good to see. Second run, she just was pushing too hard for those
conditions and went too straight at the top, then couldn’t get back into
her rhythm.”
Vonn and Mancuso stood by their decisions to rest ahead of the
World Championship.
“I was originally planning to run the slalom, but changed my plan after Sestriere in favor of some more giant slalom training prior to World
Championships,” said Mancuso. “The training in Reiteralm was awesome. One day I had the entire place to myself and they gave me a
snowmobile so I could make quicker laps.”
Vonn, who suffered a mild concussion while training on Feb. 2,
pulled out of the race just before the first run. She got a spot of luck
with Riesch’s DNF and remained 145 points behind in the overall
standings.
“I got up this morning prepared to race, but after a few warm-up
runs, I wasn’t feeling confident on my skis,” said Vonn, who hasn’t
