Austrian skier Julia Scheib wins giant slalom as Federica Brignone returns

Austrian skier Julia Scheib is heading into the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics as the racer to beat in giant slalom.

Defending overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone is back, though, after a long injury layoff. And Mikaela Shiffrin is making ground in the discipline, too.

Scheib claimed her fourth giant slalom victory of the season Tuesday, moving up from third after the opening run to finish 0.37 seconds ahead of Camille Rast and 0.46 ahead of defending Olympic champion Sara Hector, who led after the first run at the Kronplatz resort.

Shiffrin placed fourth, 0.86 behind, and Brignone was sixth, 1.23 back.

Val Grenier, of St-Isidore, Ont., was the top Canadian in ninth place, 2.24 behind Scheib, while Britt Richardson of Canmore, Alta., finished 11th.

Canada's Val Grenier finishes 9th in World Cup giant slalom at Kronplatz

The 27-year-old Scheib had never won a World Cup race before this season but now she leads the discipline standings with a comfortable margin of 139 points ahead of Rast.

Shiffrin, the American winner of a record 107 World Cup races, has not finished on the podium in giant slalom in exactly two years — since before her crash in Killington, Vt., in Nov. 2024.

Shiffrin won the Kronplatz race three times, including in 2023 when with victory No. 83 she broke the all-time women's wins record previously held by Lindsey Vonn.

Austrian Julia Scheib wins her 4th race of the year

It was Brignone's first race since breaking multiple bones in her left leg in April — which resulted in two surgeries and months of rehab.

"When I stuck my poles out, I said to myself, 'I'm not sure if I'm ready.' My hand was shaking," Brignone said after the opening run. "I started off quite rigid, which makes it tough in these