Olympic alpine ski champion Clement Noel wins season's 1st World Cup slalom

Olympic champion Clement Noel dominated the first men's World Cup slalom of the season on Sunday in Levi, Finland, for his first victory in 22 months.

The Frenchman protected his opening-run lead to beat Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway by 0.80 seconds. Swiss allrounder Loic Meillard placed third, 0.95 behind.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen came fourth, missing by one tenth what would have been the first ever World Cup podium result in Alpine skiing for Brazil.

Record eight-time overall champion Marcel Hirscher, a three-time winner in Levi, failed to qualify for the second run in his first slalom since coming out of retirement after five years.

Noel overcame what looked like a costly mistake in his opening run when he had to brake in the steep middle section of the Levi Black course, but he put in a nearly error-free second run.

"It was a tough fight. Really, really happy about my second run," Noel said. "It was quite some good skiing, I think. I knew that Henrik set the bar high. In the pitch he skied really, really well. So, I just tried to push really hard because I knew it was tight."

It was Noel's 11th career World Cup win and first since triumphing at a night race in Austria in January 2023 — his only other victory since winning Olympic gold in Beijing.

Kristoffersen posted the fastest time in a frenetic final run that saw him rise from 11th position. The two-time slalom world champion was aiming for his first World Cup win since January 2023, and called his runner-up finish "100 per cent a step in the right direction."

Meillard, who missed the season-opening giant slalom three weeks ago after tweaking his back during warmups, was the runner-up to Swiss teammate Marco Odermatt in the overall standings last season.

Odermatt