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KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Defending Olympic champion Sara Hector led after the opening run of the first World Cup giant slalom of the season on Saturday as she looked set to continue her fantastic form in that discipline.
The Swedish skier posted a time of 52.29 seconds on the course in Killington, Vermont, to take a lead of 0.38 over Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel. Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland was third, 0.43 slower than Hector.
The 30-year-old Hector won three World Cup GS races last season as well as Olympic gold in the event in Beijing. Her only success prior to that was seven years earlier.
Three other skiers were within a second of Hector -- Petra Vlhová, Marta Bassino and Katharina Liensberger. American skier Mikaela Shiffrin — who won the two season-opening slalom races last weekend — was 10th. Shiffrin is 1.36 behind Hector on home snow.
The start had to be lowered because of strong winds.
While Shiffrin hails from Vail, Colorado, she can almost consider Killington a hometown race as she honed her skills nearby at the Burke Mountain Academy as a teenager.
Shiffrin has finishes of second, third, fourth and fifth in giant slaloms in Killington. She has won all five World Cup slaloms held there.
She will be favorite to make it six out of six in the slalom on Sunday. It would be Shiffrin’s 50th World Cup win in that discipline. No other skier has won more titles in a single competition than the 27-year-old Shiffrin.
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