Zan Kranjec became the first Slovenian skier to win a men’s World Cup giant slalom on Wednesday, just hours after Ilka Stuhec, another Slovenian, won a women’s super-G in Italy.
Kranjec was half a second behind the leader after the first run. However, top contenders like Matts Olsson from Sweden and Manuel Feller from Austria could not finish their final runs. Kranjec expressed his happiness at achieving this milestone, unaware initially that he was the first Slovenian to win in this discipline.
Previously, Kranjec’s best result was a third-place finish in the Alta Badia giant slalom a year ago. In Wednesday’s race, he clocked the tenth fastest time in the final run. He managed to overtake Loic Meillard of Switzerland, who was third after the first run, by 0.19 seconds. Mathieu Faivre of France finished 0.50 seconds behind in third place.
Meillard, after achieving his first top-three finish, commented on the challenging race conditions, emphasizing the hard work put in. Marcel Hirscher, who was 0.71 seconds off the lead after the initial run, struggled in the second run despite making equipment adjustments.
Ultimately, Hirscher narrowly avoided skiing out by using one hand in the snow to correct his line. These difficulties in the race contrasted with his dominant performance in the previous days, where he won by a significant margin in other competitions.
