Henrik Kristoffersen takes advantage of Nef mistake for 20th career slalom victory
Norwegian skier eyes 3rd season title after 4th-place finish at Beijing Olympics
Henrik Kristoffersen ended a year-long wait for his 20th career slalom win Saturday, triumphing in the first men's World Cup race after the Beijing Olympics.
And the Norwegian skier put himself in contention for what would be his third slalom season title, too.
Kristoffersen benefited from a mistake by first-run leader Tanguy Nef. The unheralded Swiss, who started 25th and whose best career result is a sixth place, led a World Cup race for the first time.
Nef had been 0.07 seconds faster than Kristoffersen in the first leg and managed to maintain that advantage in his final run until straddling a gate just before going into the steep finish section in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Nef's mishap handed Kristoffersen his first slalom victory since triumphing in Chamonix, France, in January 2021. In the past 13 months, he had only won a giant slalom, in December.
The result came after Kristoffersen started working with a new ski technician, replacing Philippe Petitjean, who had prepared his skis since 2013.
"We changed a lot in December, which is quite late in the season, but it's working so good now," said Kristoffersen, who just missed an Olympic medal by placing fourth in Beijing.
"Now we just have to focus on the skiing and everything is possible," he added.
WATCH | Kristoffersen beats Meillard by 14-100ths of a second:
Switzerland's Loic Meillard, who trailed Kristoffersen by 1-100th of a second after the first run, finished 0.14 behind in second in a two-run time of one minute 46.28 seconds.
Manuel Feller (1:46.65) trailed by 0.51 in third, followed by his Austrian teammate and three-time Olympic medallist, Johannes Strolz. Calgary's Erik Read was 18th of 25 finishers in 1:48.01.
7th different winner this season
Olympic champion Clement Noel skied out in his second run. Racing in mild temperatures, the Frenchman struggled on the soft snow conditions and finished 1.18 seconds off the lead in the first run.
Kristoffersen became the seventh different winner after seven slalom races this season, as the battle for the discipline title is still wide open with the first seven racers separated by just 39 points.
There are three more races remaining, including one at the same venue on Sunday. A race win is worth 100 points.
Kristoffersen's teammate Lucas Braathen, who leads the slalom standings, straddled a gate halfway down his run, but he was already more than 8-10ths off the lead at the first split.
Braathen had his lead reduced to just a single point over Kristoffersen, with Meillard now 10 and Feller 12 points behind.
"I won so many races that, as long as I ski technically good, then we are there for the fight, for sure," Kristoffersen said. "It's not that we're going to win every race, but if we do the right technical things, we are in the race."
Another Norwegian favourite, slalom world champion Sebastian Foss Solevag, failed to finish his opening run.
Spanish skier Joaquim Salarich, who wore bib No. 50 and had earned World Cup points at just two previous races, finished 1.11 behind for a career-best eighth.
Salarich finished well ahead of defending overall champion Alexis Pinturault and World Cup slalom champion Marco Schwarz in 15th and 16th, respectively.
Dave Ryding, who became the first British winner in World Cup history by taking the Kitzbuhel slalom last month, was more than two seconds off the pace in 20th.
With files from CBC Sports
