Kranjska Gora Slalom

Ladies’ slalom in Kranjska Gora from 10 am LIVE

Katharina Truppe

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic won the slalom in Kranjska Gora. Katharina Truppe and Katharina Liensberger finished in the top 10.

Austria's women skiers had no say in the podium places in the World Cup slalom in Kranjska Gora on Sunday. The spotlight belonged to Zrinka Ljutic, the Croatian withstood the attack of Switzerland's Wendy Holdener (+0.16 sec.) in a heart-stopping final one week after her premiere victory. Third-placed Anna Swenn-Larsson (SWE) was already 1.19 seconds behind. Katharina Truppe was the best ÖSV skier with a personal success in eighth place (+2.40).

Here are the results:

The red-white-red number one, Katharina Liensberger, fell short of expectations in ninth place (+2.50) after a botched first run. Her mortgage for a top place on the podium was too big. After a despondent run, the Vorarlberg native was only in 20th place at the halfway point. "I got the best out of the second run," said Liensberger on ORF after limiting the damage with a strong finish. "It wasn't easy for me to build up momentum. It is a challenge. It's slippery on the surface, not icy, but you have to ski actively."

Katharina Liensberger

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

"Little button opened"
Truppe was "reasonably satisfied" with her first top ten result this winter. I'm not yet where I want to be, but a small button has opened for once." The next slalom is the popular Nightrace in Flachau (January 14). "If the steps continue like this, it looks pretty good until the World Championships."

Ljutic now also overall leader
Ljutic now leads the overall and slalom rankings. She is nine points ahead of Sara Hector overall and four ahead of Camille Rast in the slalom. It no longer seems far-fetched that the soon-to-be 21-year-old could follow in the footsteps of her compatriot Janica Kostelic and compete with the still-injured Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova in the slalom. It's not just her stature and skiing style that are reminiscent of Shiffrin, since this winter both have also been skiing under the Atomic umbrella.

Zrinka Ljutic

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

"It's incredible, I'm so happy. My grandma is here, almost everyone could come. If I can ski well, it's a dream come true," said a jubilant Ljutic. Holdener had no complaints about second place. "When I saw the time at the finish, I thought it might be enough," said Holdener, who had successfully unpacked "the cheeky line". "I'm happy that I was able to do it like that, even though I was feeling bad." With her, Rast and Melanie Meillard, three Swiss women finished in the top five. Seven Swiss women finished in the points - a unity as a team that Ski Austria can only dream of.

Rollercoaster ride with damage limitation
Katharina Huber (11th) started ambitiously, but showed familiar weaknesses in the final section. The Lower Austrian finished 12th, 13th and 10th at the halfway point of the season. "It's solid, but my expectations are definitely higher." Franziska Gritsch (19th) had also hoped for more after eleventh place in Semmering. Natalie Falch (40th) and Lisa Hörhager (41st) failed to clear the 30-lap hurdle. The entire red-white-red starting contingent was not exhausted.

ÖSV head coach Roland Assinger spoke of "damage limitation" and a "rollercoaster ride" through the season. "The first run is generally a problem, we get too much time behind." Next week, the speed competitions will take place in St. Anton with much higher ÖSV expectations. The men will compete in their first race of 2025 on Wednesday at the night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio.