Last season Marta Bassino won the World Cup Women’s race opener in Sölden (AUT). The Italian stood out above all in the first run where she was able to exploit her skiing fluidity on one of the most difficult racecourses of the whole Circuit. Bassino has collected in Sölden on 22 October 2016 her first career World Cup podium in the Giant Slalom (a 3rd place).
Bassino beat her teammate Federica Brignone by 0.14 seconds. For Brignone, it was her third podium in Sölden.
Following the Italian duet was Petra Vlhova, the protagonist of a great comeback in the second run that allowed her to recover 7 positions and finally conquer her first career podium in Sölden.
Marta Bassino can become the first woman to win the Sölden GS event in back-to-back World Cup seasons.
Five racers have won at least one Giant Slalom Race last season:
Bassino 4: Sölden, Courchevel, and Kranjska Gora (2)
Mikaela Shiffrin: Courchevel
Tessa Worley: Kronplatz
Petra Vlhova: Jasna
Alice Robinson: Lenzerheide
Ten racers were on the Giant Slalom podium last season:
Marta Bassino (4-0-1)
Mikaela Shiffrin (1-1-1)
Tessa Worley (1-1-1)
Alice Robinson (1-1-0)
Petra Vlhova (1-0-2)
Federica Brignone (0-2-0)
Michelle Gisin (0-1-1)
Lara Gut (0-1-0)
Meta Hrovat (0-0-2)
Sara Hector (0-1-0)
Last season Marta Bassino won the discipline title with the Italian emerging as the dominant force. Bassino became the fourth Italian skier to win the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe after Deborah Compagnoni did it in 1997, Denise Karbon in 2008, and Federica Brignone in 2020.
Marta Bassino and her teammate Brignone could become the sixth woman to win the Sölden Giant Slalom multiple times. The only active skier to have already achieved this is Lara Gut-Behrami (2).
Marta Bassino is the only woman to have won multiple Giant Slalom events (4) the previous World Cup season: Sölden, Courchevel, and Kranjska Gora (2). She recorded a DNF in Courchevel on 14 December, claimed third place in Kronplatz on 26 January, fourth place in Jasna, and seventh place in the finals in Lenzerheide. At the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Bassino came 13th in the Women's Giant Slalom.
Marta Bassino finished the season with 546 points in the Giant Slalom standings. Mikaela Shiffrin was the runner-up with 420 points, while Tessa Worley closed out the top-three in the discipline with 391 points.
The most recent woman to win the Giant Slalom Globe in successive seasons was Anna Veith in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
Mikaela Shiffrin has claimed 12 World Cup wins in the Giant Slalom, ranking her in 10th place on the women's list alongside Hanni Wenzel (12). Deborah Compagnoni and Sonja Nef (13 wins each) share the eighth place.
Shiffrin achieved a medal in each of her four race starts at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, including silver in the Giant Slalom.
Last season in Courchevel Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the top step of the podium in Giant Slalom after 323 days.
Shiffrin finished in the top-six in 19 of her last 20 World Cup appearances in the Giant Slalom (12 podiums, six wins), with the only exception of a 17th place in Courchevel on 17 December 2019.
Mikaela Shiffrin is the only woman to finish in the top three of the GS standings in each of the last five World Cup seasons: second in 2016-2017, third in 2017-2018, first in 2018-2019, third in 2019-2020, and second in 2020-2021.
Mikaela Shiffrin has won 69 races in the World Cup and is ranked in third place among all-time best skiers and now trails only Lindsey Vonn with 82 and Ingemar Stenmark with 86.
In 2019-2020 Federica Brignone became the third Italian woman to win the Giant Slalom crystal globe.
Brignone's first career win in a World Cup event came in the Sölden Giant Slalom on 24 October 2015.
Coming into Sölden, Federica Brignone (16) and Deborah Compagnoni (16) share the record for most World Cup wins among Italian women (all disciplines).
Brignone has won seven Giant Slalom events in the World Cup, only trailing Compagnoni (13) for most among Italian women. Brignone's last World Cup Giant Slalom win came in Sestriere on 18 January 2020 (shared win with Petra Vlhová).
Sadly, last season Brignone failed to become the first woman to win a GS event in six successive World Cup seasons. She has claimed a World Cup victory in the Giant Slalom in each of the previous five seasons (2015/16 to 2019/20). Her best result last season was a second place, achieved in both Sölden and Courchevel.
Alice Robinson won the Giant Slalom in Sölden on 26 October 2019. Robinson closed the season last year in the same way that she did the previous one in Kranjska Gora, at the top of the podium.
Alice Robinson (19 years) is the first woman to claim three World Cup Giant Slalom wins before turning 20 years old since Mateja Svet in the late 1980s. Until Sölden 2021 she has claimed five World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom: three wins and two second places.
Robinson could become the sixth woman to win the Sölden GS multiple times.
Robinson can become the second alpine skier representing New Zealand to win four World Cup events, equaling Claudia Riegler (4, all slalom).
Lara Gut-Behrami won the Sölden Giant Slalom twice, on 26 October 2013 and on 22 October 2016. Only Tina Maze (3) achieved more World Cup events in this specific event.
Gut-Behrami won the women's GS gold at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo. It was her first world-level victory in this discipline since a World Cup win in Sölden on 22 October 2016. Her win in 2016 was the last World Cup Giant Slalom win by a Swiss woman.
Lara Gut-Behrami, had won 32 World Cup races (11 Downhill, 16 Super-G, 4 Giant Slalom, and 1 Alpine Combined).
Tessa Worley has claimed 14 World Cup wins in the Giant Slalom, ranking her in third place among women alongside Anita Wachter, Lise-Marie Morerod, Tina Maze and Viktoria Rebensburg (all 14). Only Vreni Schneider (20) and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16) have won more.
Worley has claimed 32 World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom. Among women, only Schneider (46), Anita Wachter (45), and Rebensburg (34) have collected more.
Last season Michelle Gisin achieved her first World Cup career win by winning the Slalom event in Semmering on 29 December.
She ended fourth in the GS standings. She finished on the podium in both Giant Slalom events held in Kranjska Gora on 16 and 17 January (3rd and 2nd respectively), her first World Cup podiums in this discipline.
Michelle Gisin was the only woman to finish in the top-eight in all eight Giant Slalom events in the 2020-2021 World Cup. She could become the first Swiss woman to win a World Cup GS event since Gut-Behrami in Sölden on 22 October 2016.
Petra Vlhová won her last GS event in the World Cup, in Jasná on 7 March 2021. She claimed two additional World Cup podiums last season in the giant slalom, two third places in Sölden and Courchevel.
Only Gut-Behrami (6 wins, 10 podiums) has claimed more World Cup wins and podiums among women last season than Vlhová (4 wins, 7 podiums).
Vlhova has claimed 5 victories for a total of 9 World Cup podiums in the Giant Slalom.
Three years ago, Petra Vlhová won the first GS event held in the World Cup (Špindleruv Mlýn) after claiming the world title in this discipline in Åre.
23 years old, Slovenian Meta Hrovat rounded out the podium in the last race of the season in Lenzerheide. She also finished in third place in Kranjska Gora in January. She has 4 GS Podiums, 4 third places in Lenzerheide (2021 and 2018) and Kranjska Gora (2021 and 2020).
Last season she finished in 6th position in the Opening race in Sölden.
Katharina Liensberger collected the bronze medal in the Giant Slalom at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The last Austrian woman to win a World Cup Giant Slalom event was Eva-Maria Brem in Jasná on 7 March 2016.
This season Liensberger can become the first Austrian woman to win a Slalom and Giant Slalom event in one World Cup season since Kathrin Zettel in 2009/10.
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