In brief
Paula Moltzan finished in 2 minutes 14.82 seconds, one-hundredth of a second ahead of Lara Colturi, at age 32, the oldest woman to win her first Alpine World Cup race.
Camille Rast finished 0.81 seconds behind after being third at halfway, improving on her previous best of 12th at Sölden two years earlier.
Mikaela Shiffrin led after the first run but finished seventh, 0.83 seconds behind, after a difficult second descent in snowfall.
A first-time winner on the Rettenbach glacier
Paula Moltzan of the United States won the women's giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, on Saturday, 24 October, the opening race of the 2026-2027 Alpine skiing World Cup season. The 32-year-old finished in 2 minutes 14.82 seconds, one-hundredth of a second ahead of Lara Colturi, while Germany's Emma Aicher took third, 0.52 seconds back. Moltzan had been fifth after the first run, then clocked 1 minute 7.86 seconds on the second descent to move four places up, a time the remaining contenders could not beat.
Moltzan became the oldest woman to claim her first Alpine skiing World Cup victory. She made her World Cup debut in 2012 and had finished second or third in 10 earlier races without ever reaching the top step of the podium. The Minnesota native also won bronze in the team combined event at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.
“It feels like a fairy tale right now. Pretty unreal and I think it will take a minute to settle in.”
Shiffrin fades, Rast falls from the podium
Mikaela Shiffrin had led after the first run, but she endured a disappointing second descent and dropped to seventh, 0.83 seconds behind the winner. Reports from the course describe falling snow, reduced visibility, fog on the upper section and gusts of wind during the second run. Switzerland's Camille Rast was third at the halfway point, 37 hundredths behind Shiffrin, but she lost time on the steep section in the snow and finished sixth, 0.81 seconds back.
Rast's sixth place is her best Sölden result and her first top-10 finish there, after her previous best of 12th two years earlier. Wendy Holdener gained seven places on the second run to finish 20th, while Simone Wild was 24th, Stefanie Grob 25th and Vanessa Kasper 30th. Overall, the Swiss placings are shown in the chart below.
- Paula Moltzan (USA)
- 0 seconds
- Lara Colturi (ALB)
- 0.01 seconds
- Emma Aicher (GER)
- 0.52 seconds
- Sara Hector (SWE)
- 0.63 seconds
- Asja Zenere (ITA)
- 0.72 seconds
- Camille Rast (SUI)
- 0.81 seconds
- Mikaela Shiffrin (USA)
- 0.83 seconds
Data from the article text
Zenere, Aicher and the American field
Asja Zenere of Italy was 16th after the first run and finished fifth, 0.72 seconds behind, recovering 11 places despite a mistake mid-course. It is her best giant slalom result, after ninth place at Copper Mountain last November. Sara Hector of Sweden, second after the first run, slipped to fourth, 0.63 seconds back.
Emma Aicher, a 22-year-old German, climbed from ninth after the first run to third, her best career giant slalom result. Alice Robinson of New Zealand was eighth, while Maryna Gasienica Daniel of Poland and Franziska Gritsch of Austria shared ninth. The United States had two more skiers near the top, with AJ Hurt 13th, Elisabeth Bocock 14th and Nina O'Brien tied for 16th.
Equipment change and the next races
Moltzan left the French manufacturer Rossignol in May, ending an 18-year association, to join Van Deer-Red Bull Sports. She is the first woman to race on skis from Van Deer, the brand founded by Marcel Hirscher, and she won her first World Cup race on them in its debut. The Austrian brand had previously supplied only male skiers.
The next women's World Cup race is a slalom at Levi in Finland on 14 November, followed by a giant slalom at Killington in the United States on 28 November.