Hirscher dominates the giant slalom in Alta Badia

For the 5th time in a row, Marcel Hirscher celebrated a giant slalom win on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia. Henrik Kristoffersen finished second, and Zan Kranjec from Slovenia claimed his first ever World Cup podium.

The Austrian 6-times Overall winner Marcel Hirscher is undoubtedly the strongest giant slalom athlete at the moment! Not only did he win this race with -1.70 on his closest rival, but he also was on the podium in the 12 last giant slalom races (world cup and world championships) and won 7 of them. But with this 24th GS win in career, Marcel Hirscher is also equaling Ted Ligety’s mark of the second most wins in that discipline, trailing Stenmark with 46 wins. The statistics are also pretty impressive considering the races in Alta Badia, as Hirscher just won his fifth successive win in the South Tyrolean resort.

In second place, Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen proves that he can be constant at a very high level in giant slalom as well this season. After a second place in Beaver Creek, and a 5th place in Val d’Isère, the slalom whiz is now pointing at the 2nd place, 54 points ahead of Alexis Pinturault. The slalom whiz also hopes to grab some points tomorrow in the Parallel Giant Slaloms, even though he never did better than 9th place in an individual parallel event so far.

The sensation of the day came from Zan Kranjec. The 25 years young Slovenian claimed his first World Cup podium today in Alta Badia. Already last year, Kranjec was knocking on the podiums door as he finished 4th on the Gran Risa. Also in Sölden he was able to ski in 4th position. But today everything came together and Zan Kranjec score what could be the first podium of a long serie in this discipline. It’s a big step for him, but also for his nation Slovenia. The last Slovenian to earn a podium placement in giant slalom was Uros Pavlovic back in 2001 in Kranjska Gora.

Tomorrow, a parallel giant slalom will be held in Alta Badia. The 16 best giant slalom skiers, the 4 best overall skiers and 12 athletes qualified through today’s first run, will compete in an exciting dual format from 18h30 on.