O’Brien, Shiffrin Top 15 at Stifel Copper Cup presented by United Airlines 

Nina O’Brien led the Stifel U.S. Ski Team women in the giant slalom at the Stifel Copper Cup presented by United, taking 11th place. Mikaela Shiffrin was 14th. 

Snow fell overnight at Copper—a welcome sight in the dry west—but caused a short delay in the start. However, the sun came out by first run and the course crew slipped the new snow off to unearth a perfect track. 

First run proved challenging for the U.S. women, who battled the light coming in and out and a long, leg-burning course at nearly 11,000 feet above sea level. After first run, O’Brien sat in 13th, Paula Moltzan 16th and Shiffrin 18th – and all felt they had more to give. 

“It’s those conditions where it’s easy to feel so good, but if you push too hard, it’s also not really fast,” said Shiffrin. “You have to really find the perfect balance. I felt really good though, so we’re going to go back and analyze it and see what to do better.” 

With the delay of race from the morning, the track was dark at the 1:30pm MT second run start time. Shiffrin raced first for the U.S. women and was pleased with her result.

“It’s really difficult to be really fast consistently for the whole run,” said Shiffrin. “I was able to execute like 90 percent of the run, so I'm psyched because it's hard to change your mentality between the first and second run of a race. To actually really put that into play and execute it, I feel like I was able to do that for the most part and that's a great direction for the coming races.”

O’Brien, who was also celebrating her 28th birthday, dialed up the aggressiveness on her second run, which bumped her up to 11th place overall. “I was really trying to go for it. You can see how aggressive everyone is skiing,” said O’Brien. “I'm not completely satisfied because I feel like I could have cleaned it up a little bit further, but I'm proud of the effort and it's a real pleasure to be racing here at home.” 

Molzan also turned up the aggression, but put her head through a gate panel and crashed out of the course. She DNFed but is OK. 

Keely Cashman and Tricia Mangan started at the Stifel Copper Cup, but did not qualify for a second run. Elisabeth Bocock was skiing fast first run, but crashed on the pitch. She is OK. 

Alice Robinson of New Zealand took the win by nearly a second. Julia Scheib of Austria was second and Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway third.  

While it wasn’t the results the Stifel U.S. Ski Team women were hoping for, they were thrilled to be racing in front of the home crowd. 

“I've done a lot of World Cup races in Colorado and I've never seen this many people,” said Shiffrin, who hails from Edwards – just a short drive away from Copper. “It's really exciting to see so many people. There's so much enthusiasm. It's just amazing to be home and to have this kind of turnout for the World Cup.”

“I feel so lucky; my whole family's here,” said O’Brien, who lives in Denver. “I got to spend Thanksgiving with them. It happens to be my birthday too, so I'm feeling lots of love from everyone and hopefully everyone watching had a good time too.”

The women race slalom on Sunday to close out the weekend.

RESULTS
Women’s giant slalom

HOW TO WATCH

Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025
12:00 p.m. – women’s slalom, run 1 – LIVE on Outside TV (free)
1:00 p.m. – women’s giant slalom – tape delay on NBC & Peacock
2:00 p.m. – men’s giant slalom – tape delay on CNBC & Peacock
3:00 p.m. – women’s slalom, run 2 – LIVE on Outside TV (free), CNBC & Peacock