MERIBEL, France (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin posted the fastest time in the opening run of the giant slalom at the world championships Thursday.
Shiffrin was the third starter and beat the time of then-leader Tessa Worley of France by 0.12 seconds.
The American trailed Worley by 0.30 at the final split but clocked the fastest time of all skiers in the final section.
“I felt very good with my skiing. I was not safe anywhere, I was always pushing,” Shiffrin said. “I thought that I would be slower down here on this pitch. So I was really trying to push here.”
Shiffrin was the 2018 Olympic champion and won five of the last six giant slaloms on the World Cup circuit.
“My skiing feels good. I know how to ski GS, so just try to trust that,” Shiffrin said.
Italian skier Marta Bassino was third, 0.31 behind. The rest of the field, led by defending champion Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, had more than six-tenths of a second to make up in the second run.
Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan missed a gate halfway through her run and did not finish. Moltzan fractured her hand in Tuesday’s team event, which the U.S. team won. Shiffrin did not compete in that event.
Lower-ranked skiers were still coming down the course.
The race takes place one day after Shiffrin had an unexpected split with her longtime coach. Mike Day left the team during the middle of the world championships after Shiffrin informed him that she planned to take a new direction with her staff at the end of the season.
The sunshine beaming down on the Roc de Fer course could become a factor in the second run, when racers come down in reverse order from the first-run standings.
Shiffrin didn’t finish her opening event at the worlds last week when she straddled a gate in the slalom portion of the combined. She won silver in the super-G two days later.
Shiffrin has 12 medals from 15 previous world championship races, giving her outright second place on the all-time list for the most individual medals won by a woman at the worlds, trailing only German skier Christl Cranz, who won 15 in the 1930s.
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