Brennsteiner tenth

Giant slalom in Beaver Creek from 6 pm LIVE

Thomas Tumler brought the best time from the first run to the finish.

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Thomas Tumler wins the giant slalom in Beaver Creek! The 35-year-old Swiss skier won by 0.12 seconds ahead of the Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen. Third place went to Zan Kranjec from Slovenia (+0.58). The best Austrian was Stefan Brennsteiner in tenth place.

The Swiss ski aces have dominated the men's Alpine World Cup races in Beaver Creek. The 35-year-old Thomas Tumler unexpectedly celebrated his first World Cup success in the giant slalom on Sunday, after Justin Murisier had won the downhill and Marco Odermatt the super-G on the previous days. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA/+0.12 sec.) and Zan Kranjec (SLO/+0.58) completed the giant slalom podium. Stefan Brennsteiner from Salzburg finished tenth (+1.87) as the ÖSV's best.

(Bild: 2024 Getty Images)

These are the 33-year-old's first World Cup points on the "Birds of Prey" after he had dropped out twice in the last three giant slaloms in Beaver Creek from 2017 to 2019 and failed to qualify for the final once. He was also tenth at the halfway point and, after two serious mistakes in the second run, claimed the third top ten finish for Austria's giant slalom skiers in the second race of the season, after Patrick Feurstein finished eighth behind Haaser in the opening race in Sölden. However, the ÖSV crew had expected more this time.

Stefan Brennsteiner

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Brennsteiner: "I gave it everything Ihad"
 "I gave it everything I had, but unfortunately I started with a mistake," Brennsteiner summed up. "Two mistakes like that - that's a phenomenon on snow. If you don't stand properly, you're immediately presented with a mistake. On the whole, the skiing went well. But I have to get it together - that's the task for the next two weeks." At the season opener in Sölden, the giant slalom specialist failed the first run with a top intermediate time.

Raphael Haaser, who finished seventh in Sölden, had just made it into the second run in 30th place, in which he made up ten positions with bib number one and finished 20th (+3.37). None of the other four Austrians who started finished in the points. Super-G third Lukas Feurstein (34th/+3.43), cousin Patrick Feurstein (37th/+3.74) and Stefan Babinsky (50th/+5.54), making his giant slalom World Cup debut, missed out on qualifying for run two. Vincent Kriechmayr dropped out early in the first run, Manuel Feller stayed at home due to hip pain.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Odermatt out again
Odermatt, the giant slalom dominator of the past few seasons, was eliminated as in Sölden. While he was caught out in the first run in Ötztal, this time the race was over for the Swiss racer after finishing eighth in the second run after just a few seconds. The Norwegian podium trio from Sölden with Alexander Steen Olsen, Henrik Kristoffersen and Atle Lie McGrath finished ninth, fifth and fourth. Braathen set the fastest time from fourth place at the halfway point, the Sölden fourth-placed racer achieved Brazil's first World Cup podium. "I have no words," said the 24-year-old happily.

Here is the final score:

Tumler hadn't realized the victory straight away. "It took me a long time to see the green time. Then I saw the reaction from my team-mates. Sensational, it feels really good," he said on ORF about the moment of victory. He went into the second run with a lead over Braathen, who came fourth in run one. "I already had a good first run in Sölden and lost a lot of places. Now I thought to myself, I don't want to do that again, I attacked and I did very well."

The first run, which was atypically set very close by a French coach, had caused problems for many athletes, Tumler mastered the task unencumbered by the two previous race days with a clear lead of more than half a second over Kranjec. The Swiss athlete had already impressed six years ago in Colorado as third in the giant slalom, and he also came third this year in March in the upcoming World Championship venue Saalbach. He also came second in a parallel giant slalom in Chamonix in 2020.