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"...now I feel ready for a strong season and good World Championships at Vail in February." — Thomas Stangassinger

Austria’s veteran and 1994 Olympic champion Thomas Stangassinger claimed his 9th World Cup slalom win in Aspen, Co on Saturday. Stangassinger, 33, set a new record, becoming the oldest skier to win a World Cup slalom in the history of that competition.

On the same hill where the legendary Ingemar Stenmark from Sweden won his 86th and last World Cup race in March 1989 at the age of 33, Stangassinger beat Sebastien Amiez (FRA), who only clocked the 22nd best time in the morning, by 36/100 of a second.

Stangassinger, who has spent 15 years on the World Cup tour, was delighted to come back to the top after his disappointing 7th place result in Park City.

"It was quite a demanding and tough competition today," he admitted afterwards. "The first run was very icy yet the snow was much softer in the afternoon because of the warm temperature. It was important to ski with great feelings today. I like to race in the USA where I have achieved some strong result — now I feel ready for a strong season and good World Championships at Vail in February."

Amiez, who won the slalom in Veysonnaz, Switzerland in 1996, was by far the fastest man in the afternoon, clocking his best result since his 2nd place at the 1997 World Championships. Norway’s reigning slalom World Champion, Tom Stiansen, was 3rd at 37/100 followed by teammate Kjetil Aamodt in 4th.

Italy’s Angelo Weiss placed 5th, and another Italian, Giorgio Rocca, who started in 65th position in the first run, reached an impressive 9th place.

Austria’s Christian Mayer, three times in 3rd place in the past three races, finished 6th, regaining the lead in the Overall World Cup standings in front of his teammate Stefan Eberharter who didn’t race. France’s Pierrick Bourgeat, the surprising winner last week in Park City, finished a respectable 10th place at less than a second from the winner— and two of his friends also came among the top-15 confirming the progress of the French team.

Some of the top-favorites such as Norway’s Olympic Champion Hans-Petter Buraas and Ole Kristian Furuseth didn’t finish the first run. No American could qualify for the second run — Bode Miller, with an excellent 7th last week in Park City in GS, was 34th in the first run, only a few tenths behind the 30th position. Casey Puckett came behind him in 43rd position.

The "oldest" World Cup winner is Austria’s 1980 Olympic Champion Leonhard Stock, who was 34 years old when he won a downhill in Val Gardena, Italy in December 1992. The youngest winner ever is Italy’s Piero Gros, only 18 when he won his first races in Val d’Isere, France and Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, in December 1972. The youngest women was Canada’s Betsy Cliffort, only 15 in Val Gardena in February 1970 when she clinched a giant slalom which also counted for the Ski World Championships.

The next men’s races will take place next week in Canada’s Whistler Mountain, BC, a downhill and a super-G.