Aicher’s first slalom win gives her overall challenge a wider reach

Aicher now has six World Cup race victories: two downhills, three super-Gs and this slalom. That is a significant expansion of her overall-title credentials, not simply another trophy. A skier already capable of winning in the speed events has shown she can collect maximum points in a technical discipline, too. She and Colturi leave Levi sharing the overall World Cup lead on 160 points each.⁠2⁠3

Aicher did the essential work in the opening run. Her 55.74 seconds put her 0.36 ahead of Colturi, whose 56.10 kept the contest close. Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutić stood third in 56.62, while Truppe was fifth in 56.79, already 1.05 seconds off the lead. Those gaps gave Aicher room to win without needing the fastest second run—but not room to be careless.⁠8

She followed with 56.88. Colturi skied 56.95, so Aicher did more than preserve her advantage over her closest challenger: she extended it by seven hundredths. Colturi’s combined 1:53.05 brought 80 World Cup points, against Aicher’s 100. The winning performance was two-run consistency, with the opening leg supplying the advantage and the second keeping it intact.⁠5

Truppe supplied the sharpest late challenge. Recovering from a first-run mistake, she produced the fastest second run, 56.33, cutting her deficit to Aicher by 0.55 seconds and climbing from fifth to third. Her total of 1:53.12 left her just seven hundredths behind Colturi. Ljutić slipped to fourth, 0.83 behind Aicher; everyone below her finished more than a second off the winning time.⁠2⁠3⁠5

For Truppe, the podium ended a very particular wait. Her first World Cup top-three finish had come at Levi in 2019, also in third place. Seven years later, she returned to the same step for her seventh career podium. She told ORF she had let her skis run calmly in the second leg and stopped overthinking. Her only World Cup victory so far remains the slalom at Åre in March 2025.⁠2

Aicher had her own history with the hill. Levi hosted her first World Cup appearance, her first World Cup points and her first slalom podium. Speaking to BR, as reported by DER SPIEGEL, she called the victory a “full-circle moment.” It came one day after her 23rd birthday, with Santa Claus and a reindeer joining the Finnish celebration. The festive scene had a substantial sporting result behind it.⁠1

Three weeks earlier, Aicher had finished third in the season-opening giant slalom at Sölden. She has therefore begun the winter with podiums in both technical disciplines, while her previous victories establish her ability to win in downhill and super-G. She has not won in all four disciplines, but she has already made clear why narrowing her ambitions to one would miss much of her strength.⁠1⁠2

The distinction matters for the overall championship, which rewards points gathered across disciplines. Levi gives Aicher another demonstrated route to a 100-point day. It does not establish that those days will come regularly in slalom, or that the overall title will follow. Two early podiums are a strong start, not a season-long verdict.

Nor is Colturi merely a supporting character in Aicher’s challenge. Her second place matched her result at Sölden and put her level with Aicher at the top of the standings. She is still chasing her first World Cup victory, but consecutive runner-up finishes have so far been worth exactly as much as Aicher’s third place and win. The standings recognise accumulation, not just breakthroughs.⁠2⁠3

Aicher has already challenged for the overall title into the closing stages of last season and won two Olympic silver medals. Germany’s last women’s overall World Cup winner was Maria Höfl-Riesch, 15 years earlier. There is a concrete basis for renewed expectations—but Aicher herself resisted forecasting the winter from Levi. She told ORF she had not expected the race to go this well and wanted to build on the good feeling.⁠1⁠2

One important qualification was absent from the start list: Mikaela Shiffrin. After winning nine of the previous winter’s ten World Cup slaloms, she chose to race fewer this season and devote more attention to giant slalom and super-G. She also plans to miss Gurgl. That changes the competitive context, without changing what Aicher delivered: the fastest combined time over two completed runs.⁠1⁠5

Petra Vlhová’s 16th place carried a different measure of success. Returning to World Cup slalom after two years and ten months away following a serious knee injury, she completed both runs and earned 15 points. The official classification places her 14th after the first run and 16th overall in 1:55.05, 2.43 seconds behind Aicher. A completed, points-scoring return was the tangible result of her comeback.⁠3⁠5

Lena Dürr salvaged her afternoon after qualifying for the second run in 30th. Her second effort of 56.89 was only one hundredth slower than Aicher’s and lifted her to 18th, worth 13 points. Austria’s Valentina Rings-Wanner made a more personal breakthrough: starting with bib 70 on her seventh World Cup appearance, the 21-year-old reached her first second run, rose from 29th to 23rd and earned her first eight World Cup points. She told ORF she had felt intensely stressed about bringing a result to the finish.⁠1⁠2⁠5

Behind the leading four, Anna Swenn Larsson finished fifth, ahead of Marion Chevrier, Marie Lamure and Madison Hoffman. Katharina Huber dropped from sixth to ninth, and Wendy Holdener completed the top ten. Beatrice Sola was the leading Italian in 19th, ahead of Lara Della Mea in 20th and Martina Peterlini in 24th. Sölden giant-slalom winner Paula Moltzan failed to finish the opening run; 27 racers completed both legs.⁠2⁠3⁠5

The next women’s World Cup slalom is at Gurgl, Austria, on Saturday, November 21, with runs scheduled for 10:30 and 13:30 local time. Aicher arrives with a newly expanded winning record; Colturi arrives with an equal share of the overall lead and a first victory still to pursue. Levi separated them by 0.43 seconds. For now, the championship separates them by nothing.⁠2⁠3