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SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) — Olympic champion Petra Vlhová led after the opening run of a World Cup slalom on Sunday as she searched for her first win of the season.
The Slovakian skier posted a time of 58.51 seconds in Sestriere to take an advantage of 0.24 over Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, who ended her lengthy wait for a slalom victory last month in Killington, Vermont.
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States was third, 0.33 slower than Vlhová.
Two other skiers were within a second of Vlhová — Lena Dürr and Anna Swenn Larsson, who also won in Killington in a joint first-place finish.
The 27-year-old Vlhová won the slalom title last season — as well as Olympic gold — but finished second in the overall standings to Shiffrin. Vlhová won the overall title the previous year.
Shiffrin leads the overall standings after winning the two season-opening slalom races. Vlhová finished third in both.
Neither finished on the podium in the slalom or the giant slalom in Killington and both opted out of the speed races in Lake Louise in Canada last weekend.
Vlhová finished third in Saturday’s GS to trim Shiffrin’s lead in the overall standings to 25 points.
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