Alpine skiing-Women's GS sparks 'junior slope' jibe but Shiffrin praises piste's safety

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By Julien Pretot

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, ITALY, Feb 15 : The two leading giant slalom racers of the season delivered a blunt verdict on the Olympic course on Sunday, with Switzerland’s Camille Rast saying the hill felt “like a junior race slope” after a race that left her and Austria’s Julia Scheib just outside the podium places.

Rast, who finished 12th and 0.37 seconds off the medals, said the layout — flat after a strong top section and unforgiving to mistakes — was not like a traditional giant slalom.

“I would love to race on the real slalom slope from the World Champs, because that's a real slalom slope. This is like a junior race slope. But that's life. We are at the Olympics and we take what we have to do,” said Rast, second in the giant slalom World Cup standings.

American Mikaela Shiffrin, who placed 11th, instead praised the piste’s safety and spectacle.

“I don't think anybody would say there was danger on this hill today. It was actually prepped conditions that were working, and it was conducive to really aggressive skiing,” she said, adding: "It wasn't like somebody won who wasn't supposed to win.”

Federica Brignone won her second gold of the Games on home snow with two flawless runs, with Sara Hector – the only skier from the top five in the discipline’s World Cup standings to make it onto the podium – joint second with Thea Louise Stjernesund.

Shiffrin said the Olimpia delle Tofane course felt different because of the flat terrain lower down.

"Normally with GS, it's like maybe you see the first 10 turns, maybe the first eight turns. It's rare that you kind of see the entire course laid ahead of you. So it's this really cool feeling to be like, like I just know what's coming and I'm gonna