'Crazy': Scheib grabs her third GS win of the season

This season's Giant Slalom campaign has been an epic battle between two women: Alice Robinson (NZL/Salomon) and Julia Scheib (AUT/Rossignol).

With Robinson out of the picture on Saturday in Semmering, Scheib took full advantage.

The Austrian late bloomer won her third race of the season — and of her career — to take over from Robinson (DNF) as the World Cup Giant Slalom leader, moving up a spot after the first run to send her home crowd into a frenzy.

Skiing two controlled runs on a bumpy course with rollers that regularly pitched others into the air, Scheib demonstrated her new-found consistency to win in a total time of 1:56.46 seconds.

Skiing the second-fastest first run and fifth-fastest second run, the 27-year-old triumphed by 0.14 seconds over Camille Rast (SUI/Head), with first-run leader Sara Hector (SWE/Head, +0.40s) pushed down into third.

"Crazy, I never thought it would be the win," Scheib admitted. "It was so tough, it was so bumpy and I was so relieved when I came into the finish."

After a first run in which she was the first skier out of the gate and put down a time that only Hector topped by just 0.02 seconds, Scheib was the second-last skier in the second run with Rast holding the clubhouse lead.

Starting with an advantage of 0.63 seconds, the Austrian lost time in the mid-section and fell behind Rast at the last intermediate split, before making it up with the fastest closeout of the run, precisely where Rast had faltered, to take the lead.

Skiing last, Hector was in touch throughout but couldn't match Scheib in the final sector, giving the Austrian her second win at home this season after her first World Cup triumph in Sölden that opened the campaign.

"Amazing, I can't describe it," she said of winning at home. "I heard the crowd before I broke into that last section and I thought, 'I have to let go of the skis'.

"I like home races — Sölden was special, and I enjoy it right now."

Another skier who enjoyed Semmering, albeit surprisingly, was Rast, who admitted pre-race that it was not one of her favorite courses before skiing two brilliant runs from bib No.14 to finish as the runner-up.

"A bit more now," said Rast, responding to whether she likes Semmering after all, having secured Switzerland's 500th World Cup Giant Slalom podium in women's and men's Alpine skiing.

"It's nice to finish the year in GS on the podium," she said, after finishing fifth, fourth and fourth in the last three Giant Slaloms. "I was really close in Tremblant (two fourths) and I tried to give my best today, and it worked."

Skiing fifth to last in the second run, Rast built a lead of over a second at the final intermediate split, but was thrown into the air in the closeout, lowering her leading margin and opening the door for those yet to ski.

"I knew that I will do some mistakes, that feeling was not so good, and in the end I wanted to see the green light, and it was like this," Rast said.

While Scheib took advantage of Rast's mistake, Hector could not.

The reigning Olympic champion only managed the 12th best time in a second run that she described as "really bumpy" as the final skier on the mountain.

"I could have been a little bit better on my outside ski," Hector admitted, though she still retains a positive outlook heading into the defense of her Olympic title in February.

"I think I'm on a pretty good roll," she said. "I still have work left, but I'm excited to do this."

New Zealand star Robinson, who had split the first four GS races of the season with Scheib, started brilliantly in the first run but was pitched into the air before a right-footed turn in the mid-section and went down and out on her inside ski.

On the same turn, three skiers later, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) lost her outside ski and drifted wide, and although she managed to recover, it cost her time and put her into eighth place, over a second behind Hector.

Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic Giant Slalom champion, had a solid second run to finish sixth, but she missed the podium in GS for the 10th straight time of asking since January 2024 as she continues to come to terms with the discipline in which she suffered a serious puncture injury last November.

The 105-time World Cup winner will hope for better fortune in Sunday's Slalom, and the form line suggests she will be hard to stop: Shiffrin has won all four Slalom races this season, and three of her last four Slaloms in Semmering.

Click here for full results from Saturday's race.