Brilliant start to 2023/24 Alpine World Cup season for Alice Robinson, claiming top ten finish in Sölden

Alice Robinson (Queenstown, 21) has finished in ninth place at the FIS Giant Slalom World Cup season-opener held on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria overnight.  

The course in Sölden boasts a vertical drop of 370m and begins with flatter section right out the start gate, before rolling over onto the steeper pitch on the ice fall of the glacier. The course then has a crucial transition back onto the final flat section, where the athletes reach speeds of over 80km per hour.  

Conditions were near perfect, with the glacier providing a firm and grippy snow surface. Robinson was quick out the gate in run one and skied aggressively through the top section, getting good purchase early in the turn. Robinson lost some time through the first section but was quick through the final section, clocking just over 80 km per hour.   

After run one Robinson was sitting in 13^th position, +2.34 seconds behind leader Federica Brignone of Italy, who was an impressive half a second ahead of her nearest competitor. Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA, widely considered one of the greatest World Cup skiers of all time, was sitting in fifth place, +0.75 off Brignone’s time.  

Coming into run two, Robinson knew she had some work to do. She was the 19^th athlete to drop into run two and had a -0.17 advantage over the current race leader. Robinson utilised her trademark aggressive and dynamic style to increase her advantage to -0.19 and take the provisional top spot with the top twelve fastest skiers still to come.  

Once all the athletes had completed their second run, Robinson finished in a very respectable ninth place, +2.48 behind winner Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland. 

Gut-Behrami put down an incredible second run to take the win, with run one leader Brignone finishing in second place, just +0.02 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. Petra Vlhova of Slovakia rounded out the podium in third.  

There is a now break in the Giant Slalom World Cup schedule, with the next race scheduled for the 26^th of November in Killington, USA.  

Watch Alice's second run below: