Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami posts 2nd straight World Cup giant slalom victory

Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami made it two giant slalom victories from two starts this season, winning a women's World Cup race Saturday in which Mikaela Shiffrin finished third.

The American improved from fifth position after the opening run and extended her lead in the World Cup overall standings.

"I am extremely happy, especially after last year here, I started to feel like it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that I couldn't ski my best here in Killington on the GS slope," Shiffrin said from Killington, Vt. She placed 13th a year ago but now has three podium results from six starts in her home event.

"It's been an adventure today to kind of find my best feeling I can have with, you know, some compromised training the last weeks. And I felt some really amazing skiing, some glimpses from last season, so I'm really excited and thankful for my team for the work they've done the last weeks to get there."

Shiffrin won the GS season title last season while setting the record for most career wins in the discipline with 21. She finished sixth in the season opener four weeks ago.

On Saturday, Gut-Behrami was third after the tight opening run before posting the third-fastest time in the final leg to beat Alice Robinson by 0.62 seconds in a two-run time of one minute 53.05 seconds. The New Zealand skier, who was the 2019 junior world champion, led after the opening run and earned her first podium result since March 2021.

WATCH | Gut-Behrami 1st back-to-back Swiss GS winner since 2001:

Shiffrin called Gut-Behrami's final run "spectacular."

"It wasn't perfect, but she has this mentality to keep the speed no matter what," Shiffrin said. "That's the level we all want to get to."

Gut-Behrami also won the season-opening GS in Austria