Women's Giant Slalom
Sweden's Anna Ottosson celebrated her first World Cup victory on Sunday, winning the eighth giant slalom of the season by almost a full second. Ottosson, twice 2nd and once 3rd in recent years, was fighting hard this winter to capture her first success on the World Cup tour.

	Ottosson

"I have been waiting for this for a long time. I had a good start to the season at Tignes but then I crashed at Serre Chevalier and have been skiing cautiously since then," said the 23-year-old from Froesoen.

Her best previous results were at Spain's Sierra Nevada last year and at Tignes in October when she came in 2nd. She needed over a month to recover all her momentum after crashing at Serre Chevalier in early December. In Cortina, Anna used a new, more aggressive model of skis for the first time. They proved to be the right choice for the demanding conditions.

After setting the fastest time in the opening run, she was able to remain ahead of her closest rivals in the second run, during which many of the top-specialists, such as Austria's Renate Goetschl, crashed. Anita Wachter, another serious contender, skied out and her teammate Eveline Rohregger fell just a few meters in front of the finish line while fighting for a place on the podium.

"This first victory is something I've been dreaming of for a while, I've been so close before. I used a new pair of skis here and it was a smart move because the course was really hard. Maybe I should have done this earlier...." — Anna Ottosson (SWE)

Michaela Dorfmeister, the great dominator in giant slalom this winter, was 8th, allowing her to reinforce her lead in the various World Cup standings. Liechtenstein's Birgit Heeb and Canada's Allison Forsyth tied for 2nd place at 87/100. American Kristin Koznick was 16th and her teammate Sarah Schleper, who made a serious mistake in the second run, finished 20th.

Ottosson's win finally confirmed the promise she has shown over the past three years. It also marks Sweden's third giant slalom win in women's World Cup history — its first since Pernilla Wiberg won in 1992.

"This first victory is something I've been dreaming of for a while," said Ottosson, "I've been so close before. I used a new pair of skis here and it was a smart move because the course was really hard. Maybe I should have done this earlier."

France's Régine Cavagnoud, the winner of yesterday's downhill, also switched her skis after a poor first run today, in which she only clocked the 27th best time. On the new skis, she was by far the fastest in the second run, this should give her great confidence for the coming events. Her performance this weekend makes her a top favorite for the Overall World Cup.

	Forsyth

Forsyth equalled her previous best finish — 2nd in a giant slalom at Lienz last month. She was quite excited about this great achievement, even though she admitted afterwards that she was fighting for more. "I'm quite confident now and I believed in my chances to do very well here on this long and very demanding slope," she said at the press conference. "I had some promising results in the past races, including 5th place in Maribor on a rather easy course. I knew that I can do much better on a tougher course which required a strong technique. I was also pleased to compete on such a long run because I'm in excellent shape for the moment and I knew that I could make up much time at the bottom. In fact, this is where I gained the most time in the 2nd run."

The next women's races will take place in Bavaria's Zwiesel next week, where a giant slalom and a slalom are scheduled.

— Patrick Lang, MountainZone.com Correspondent