Unheralded Hensien leads US ski team with Shiffrin and O'Brien to best GS result in 32 years

SOELDEN, Austria (AP) — The U.S. women’s ski team opened the World Cup season on Saturday with its best giant slalom result in more than three decades.

And, for a change, it wasn’t record-holder Mikaela Shiffrin leading the way.

Unheralded Katie Hensien placed fourth at the traditional season-opening GS on a glacier in the Austrian Alps, followed by Shiffrin in fifth and Nina O’Brien in seventh. Paula Moltzan rounded off the team’s strong showing in 11th.

Remarkably, Hensien and O’Brien sat out last season with injuries and returned to top-level racing after 19 months with career-best results.

“First time back, first time ever racing on this hill, I couldn’t have asked for a better day,” said Hensien, who grew up in Park City and went to college in Denver.

“And it’s really good to be able to trust my body again. My knee feels great and I just trusted my skiing today and went for it.”

Hensien first raced on the World Cup circuit in 2017 and achieved just one previous top-20 result, 18th in a slalom in Zagreb, Croatia, four seasons ago.

Starting Saturday’s race wearing bib No. 47, Hensien made it all the way up to 17th after the first run, and then posted the fastest time in the final run to climb to fourth, only three-hundredths short of the podium.

“It shocked me,” she said. “The emotions hit me really hard because (I'm) coming back from a knee injury and then it’s been a year and a half. It means a lot. And it just proved that all that hard work I did this last year in Denver paid off. So, I’m very proud of myself.”

And O’Brien said she was proud of Hensien.

“It just feels so cool,” said O’Brien, who recovered from a broken left lower leg last season and shared rehab time with Hensien.

Raised on skis in Palisades Tahoe and Burke Mountain, O'Brien improved her career-best result by two spots, having finished ninth in the season opener on the same hill three years ago.

“You always put in the hard work and you know somewhere, somehow, it will pay off," O'Brien said. "But today feels like just such a perfect moment for it to pay off for both of us. I’m psyched to do it with her.”

Hensien’s high helped the team to its best World Cup giant slalom result since Eva Twardokens, Diann Roffe Steinrotter and Julie Parisien finished third, fourth and sixth, respectively, at a race in Piancavallo, Italy, in January 1992.

For a run and a half, it even looked like the team might be able to celebrate a victory.

First-run leader Shiffrin extended her lead over closest challenger Federica Brignone to 0.65 seconds at the first split of her final run, but then struggled on the steep pitch and ultimately finished 1.21 seconds behind the Italian winner.

“The first run felt pretty, pretty good and some really good skiing. But I was kind of feeling like I missed some intensity. So, the second run I was kind of trying to address that and missed the timing of it,” Shiffrin said.

She remained on 97 career wins overall and 22 in giant slalom – both are World Cup records.

Known as a team player, Shiffrin was naturally upbeat about her teammates' “unbelievable” performances.

“It’s so cool. Like Nina coming back after so long and showing that. It wasn’t the easiest day to do that. And she just went out and did it,” Shiffrin said.

“And Katie, I mean, that’s unbelievable. It’s really, really exciting. They’ve been skiing well, and you watch it and you know it.”

Hensien didn’t want to read too much in her beating even Shiffrin in her first race back on the circuit since March 2023.

“She’s been skiing astronomical, like in training, she is so solid, she is the person I’m chasing,” Hensien said. “It got bumpy and maybe not her best execution, but this is just going to fuel her fire and she is going to be coming in hot until (the next GS on Nov. 30 in) Killington. I would say, everyone should watch out for that.”

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Eric Willemsen on X: https://x.com/eWilmedia

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Eric Willemsen, The Associated Press