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Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA
November 19, 1999
Women's Giant Slalom
Regine Cavagnoud celebrated her best success to date here at Copper Mountain, taking the second giant slalom of the season only 10 months after she seriously injured her knee in Vail during last year's FIS World Championships.
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 Regine Cavagnoud |
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The French veteran beat Italy's Karen Putzer by 7/100 of a second and Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister by 22/100 while most of the top favorites finished far behind. They had a hard time handling the fast course, which was suited more to established speed skiers.
Anita Wachter, who has reached the podium in the past nine giant slaloms, finished a disappointing 57th in the first run and missed the cut for the second run. Her teammate Alexandra Meissnitzer had to be content with 15th place — the worst this reigning World Champion has done in that event.
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| "I had a good feeling this morning because I had some strong training runs here last week in the super G but I didn't think I'd win so soon — especially in giant slalom..." —Regine Cavagnoud, FRA |
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The rather flat course was also too fast for Sonja Nef, who reached a disappointing 17th place. Nef was the winner at Tignes three weeks ago. Sweden's Ana Ottosson, 2nd at Tignes and 6th here in Colorado, is now tied with Regine Cavagnoud for first place in the Overall World Cup standings. But that might change after tomorrow's slalom event.
America's Kristina Koznick scored her very first World Cup points in giant slalom, finishing 27th — definitely an encouraging result. The skier from Burnsville, Minnesota, who performed poorly last season, changed her equipment sponsor last summer.
The 29-year-old Cavagnoud will certainly remember 1999, a year marked by three great wins and her accident at Vail (a torn ACL in her right knee). A week prior to her accident, the skier from La Clusaz had achieved her dream after winning a downhill and a super G at Cortina d'Ampezzo, 10 years after her debut on the French Ski Team.
"It's an incredible day for me, I can't believe what happened to me today," she said with wet eyes and a big smile.
"I had a good feeling this morning because I had some strong training runs here last week in the super G but I didn't think I'd win so soon — especially in giant slalom. The conditions were perfect for me here — the course has been perfectly prepared and both runs were fast and straight."
Asked about her rehabilitation, Cavagnoud said, "The surgeon in France has done a great job on my knee and during my long re-education. My strong confidence helped me to be patient during the summer and not to hurry to get back too soon on my skis. I trained only giant slalom. I found out soon that I had not lost my technique and this gave me great momentum.
"I was strongly driven by the great time I had in Cortina last January. Now I hope to find my rhythm in the speed events. I haven't trained in downhill so far, but my super G looks fine," she said.
The last French woman to win a giant slalom was Carole Merle at the World Cup final at Åre, Sweden, in March 1993.
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Podium |
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Sweden's Anja Paerson had a good day, too, thanks to her excellent second run in which she set the fastest time. The young Scandinavian came back from 24th to 4th place. She is one of the top favorites for the slalom win Saturday, as are Koznick, Austria's Sabine Egger and Slovenia's Spela Pretnar, who won the final slalom race last year in Åre.
—Patrick Lang, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent