KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova built a slim lead in the rain-marred opening run of a women’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday, with Mikaela Shiffrin finishing almost a second behind in seventh.
Vlhova was 0.02 seconds faster than Federica Brignone on the Podkoren course, where the lower part was softened because of persistent rainfall since Friday afternoon. Brignone led the discipline standings before the race after the Italian won two of the five previous giant slaloms.
Another two-time GS winner this season, Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami, ranked third with 0.15 to make up in the second leg later Saturday.
Shiffrin avoided major mistakes in what seemed like a rather conservative run as the world champion from the United States lost time on Vlhova at each checkpoint.
Shiffrin finished 0.98 seconds off the pace, nine days after the American won the previous GS in Austria.
Aiming for her sixth title this season, Shiffrin leads the overall standings ahead of Brignone and Vlhova.
Vlhova, who is Shiffrin’s main rival in slalom, has won six giant slaloms in her career in six different countries, but none since the World Cup finals in Sweden in March 2022.
Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden was 0.79 behind in fifth.
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