Swiss skier Rast leads, Shiffrin stands third in first run of slalom at Alpine world championships

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Swiss skier Camille Rast built a big lead and Mikaela Shiffrin was looming in third in the opening run of the women’s slalom at the Alpine world championships on Saturday.

Rast finished 0.58 seconds ahead of Katharina Liensberger of Austria, who won the slalom world title in 2021.

Shiffrin had 0.72 to make up in the second run later Saturday.

“I think that was some of the best skiing I’ve done lately,” said the American star, who is chasing her record 16th career medal at the worlds.

Shiffrin won gold with American teammate Breezy Johnson in the team combined on Tuesday but sat out the giant slalom two days later. She felt not ready yet to race GS after recovering from an abdominal injury sustained in a GS crash in Killington, Vermont in November.

“It was a big challenge to keep up with the pace, and for me especially on the end of the course,” Shiffrin said. “It’s like 15 seconds longer than anything I’ve skied since before Killington. I don’t have very much in my legs left.”

Shiffrin has won a medal in slalom, including four in gold, at all six previous world championships she competed in since 2013.

“What I saw from Camille, she was so light … taking on the full speed of the course,” Shiffrin said. “And that was really impressive for me, because it’s not easy to do that on this hill.”

Rast leads the slalom season standings after getting the first two World Cup wins of her career.

“I just did my thing and found my flow,” said Rast, who is competing at her fifth worlds but has yet to win a medal, though she won gold in slalom at the 2017 junior world championships.

“Nobody is out of the medal race yet, in slalom everything can happen,” she added. “The sun is there, it’s getting warmer, so the course will be a bit affected (in the second run). It’s still wide open.”

Rast’s teammate Wendy Holdener was eight-tenths off the lead in fourth.

Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.55 behind in fifth. Moltzan won her first career individual medal by taking bronze in Thursday’s giant slalom.

Zrinka Ljutic was one of the pre-race favorites after winning three of the last four slaloms on the World Cup circuit but the Croatian finished 2.14 seconds behind.

Defending champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada didn’t finish her run.

Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova didn’t race as she’s still recovering from knee surgery a year ago. The Slovakian standout told Austrian TV she had “no idea” when she might return to racing.