A petite 19-year-old French skier named Tessa Worley emerged out of a steady blizzard on Aspen Mountain Saturday to win the giant slalom race and claim her first World Cup victory.
“I’m very proud to do this France, and for me,” Worley said. “It was very cool.”
Tanja Poutiainen of Finland finished second, taking her sixth podium in Aspen and claiming the top spot in the women’s overall World Cup standings from defending champion Lindsey Vonn, who finished fourth.
Elisabeth Goergl of Austria took third and saved what was otherwise a bleak day for the Austrian ski team. Four Austrian racers, including standout Nicole Hosp, did not get through their first run and two others didn’t finish their second run. Goergl finished fourth in last year’s overall World Cup standings.
The U.S. Ski Team had a strong day with Vonn’s fourth-place finish and Julia Mancuso ending up in seventh place. Sarah Schleper finished 13th, Megan McJames came in 25th and all the young up-and-coming American racers made it to the bottom, no small feat given Saturday’s poor visibility and steadily falling snow.
“This isn’t so bad, fourth place,” Vonn said in the finish area. “It’s my personal best in giant slalom and after skiing just one day of giant slalom in a month and having an injury that could have put me out for the entire season.”
Vonn said she was nervous at the start of the first run, but she still finished seventh. And she said her knee was a bit sore.
“It was rough conditions and you had to fight all the way down,” she said. “It wasn’t a perfect run by any means but I kept fighting and that’s what counts.”
Coming back to World Cup racing after a two-year hiatus, U.S. racer Sarah Schleper, 29, also had a good race and her 10-month-old baby boy was in the finish corral.
“I was surprised by my time,” Schleper said. “Halfway down the course,
I was having a little bit of difficulty holding in my bladder. That is one of the repercussions of pregnancy. I still haven’t got that complete control back. I was like, ‘I should have peed before my run!’ I’m all wet, but I’m psyched to be down here in the top 15.”
Jim Tracy, head coach of the U.S. women’s team, was happy with his team’s GS results.
“This is our best GS result here in many, many years,” he said, despite the tough GS course.
“It is steep with a lot of terrain and then the hard, hard snow underneath with the new snow on top of that, well, it provides for a super challenging day mentally, as well as physically,” Tracy said. “It comes down to who can step it up mentally on what was a challenging day.”
Toward the end of the second run, Mancuso took the lead and the crowd in the bleachers went nuts. Then Vonn thundered into the finish line right after her and also took the lead, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“It was pretty exciting to hear,” Tracy said. “I’ve been here for races many, many times and it was pretty amazing to hear them roar.”
For a moment, the U.S. team’s dream results were on the leader board, with Vonn in first place and Mancuso in second, but it was not to last as Worley, Poutiainen and Goergl came rushing down Strawpile to claim the podium.
Worley had seen just 13 prior World Cup starts and Saturday’s victory was the first time she’d been on a World Cup podium, never mind on the top step. Her best result before Saturday was a fifth place finish in a GS race last year.
“We didn’t expect her to win, but we expected some good results,” said Jean-Philippe Vulliet, the head coach of the French women’s team. “Everybody knows that Tessa is a very good skier, especially in conditions with steep slopes and icy snow. So we are not that amazed.”
Other top European racers Saturday included Kathrin Zettel of Austria in fifth place, Denise Karbon in 15th and Anja Paerson in 20th. Karbon had the fastest time on the first run and appeared to be heading for a win during her smooth second run when she was suddenly spun around on her skis just above the finish line. She completed the run but the mistake likely gave Worley the victory.
Sixteen racers did not make it down the course during the first run and two racers were injured. Marla José Rienda of Spain tore the ACL in one of her knees and Chiara Costazza of Italy tore her left Achilles tendon.
“Everybody is a little down because we had some injuries,” said Atle Skaardal of Norway, chief race director for the women’s World Cup tour. “The injuries were not the result of any problems with the course, but still, it is sad as it is a small family and everybody is touched by it.”
Course workers started sideslipping the course at 5 a.m. Saturday to remove the 3 or 4 inches of snow that fell overnight.
Skaardal made it a point to compliment the course workers during Saturday evening’s team captains’ meeting.
“I think we can be quite happy with the course preparation,” he said. “I would like to give a big compliment to the cat drivers for their good work yesterday and the course workers for their good work today. It turned out to be a good competition.”
Jim Hancock, chief of the Aspen race, said he was expecting to see another 4 to 10 inches of snow fall by Sunday morning, thus reinforcing the maxim that if Aspen holds a World Cup race, it is almost certain to snow.
Today’s slalom race begins at 10 a.m. with 59 racers set to charge out of the gates. The second run is at 1 p.m.
Vonn, Mancuso and Schleper are racing today for the U.S. team as are Hailey Duke, Sterling Grant and Kiley Staples.
Saturday’s GS race will be shown on NBC today at 11 a.m. local time.
bgs@aspendailynews.com