First Weekend of American 2024-25 World Cups Wraps

Nearly 40,000 fans turned up and turned out for the Stifel Killington World Cup weekend, which closed out on Sunday, Dec. 1 with another nail-biting race that saw two Swiss and one Swede take the podium – Camille Rast in first, and Wendy Hoeldener and Anna Swenn Larsson tied for second.
None of the Americans were able to make a play at the podium today, but there is still much to celebrate. Mikaela Shiffrin, Paula Moltzan and Elisabeth Bocock, who all received injuries in their races this weekend, did not suffer anything season-ending. Despite not qualifying for a second run in slalom, Nina O’Brien is still celebrating a career-best World Cup result in the giant slalom on Saturday. Katie Hensien continues to build on her giant slalom momentum from the beginning of the season. Mia Hunt finished her first-ever World Cup run in front of a home crowd on a difficult course.
“The slalom course was really difficult today,” commented O’Brien. “They set a really technical, really tight course. And that, combined with a little bit of changing snow at the top that definitely had some grooves in it by the end when I ran, and a bottom that held up really well but was slick. So I found it pretty difficult, but there were still some impressive runs from the back showing that anything is possible.”
Shiffrin is out of the hospital and on the mend after receiving a puncture wound to the right side of the abdomen and some severe muscle trauma. She is sore but still tuned in to watch the race today and is looking forward to some much-needed rest before jumping on the rehab train. Moltzan is in a similar boat, having suffered a dislocated shoulder during the first slalom run on Sunday. Her shoulder was immediately reset and is currently stable, with no current need for surgical operation. Bocock was slated to start Sunday’s slalom but chose to sit it out after warm-ups proved her wrist injury sustained in Saturday’s giant slalom made blocking gates more painful than she initially anticipated.
Despite the injuries, the women’s alpine team is walking away from the weekend of racing in Killington, feeling positive and looking ahead to the rest of the season. Racing on home soil is always a great way to kick things off for a group that spends the majority of their winter competing in Europe, far from family, friends and the loud and proud American crowd.
“This race is my favorite race on tour for a handful of reasons – A) it’s in Vermont, B) my family can be here, and C) the crowd is unreal,” says Moltzan, who raced at University of Vermont and currently lives in the state. “Every ski racer from bib one to bib 60 receives the biggest welcome into the finish no matter the result, and that’s pretty special because not all World Cups are like that. Getting to cross that finish line and get that big welcome home from Vermont is pretty incredible.”
With the Tremblant World Cup tech series canceled, the next time the women’s alpine team will hit the slopes will be in Beaver Creek, Colorado, at the Stifel Birds of Prey downhill and super-G, Dec. 14 and 15.
RESULTS
Women’s slalom