Mario Matt ends slalom drought in Val d'Isere
Mario Matt won his 14th World Cup slalom to tie his fellow Austrian Benjamin Raich.
The wait is over for Mario Matt.
Matt ended a nearly three-year drought on the World Cup circuit when he won the slalom on the icy Face de Bellevarde in Val d'Isere, France on Sunday.
He now has 14 slalom victories, putting him into a tie with fellow Austrian Benny Raich.
"I am very happy about this result," the two-time slalom world champion was quoted as saying by the website of alpine skiing's governing body. "I was a few times on the podium in the past two years but since (Slovenia) in 2011 I couldn't win."
Matt posted the fastest time in the first run and held his nerve in the second to beat Sweden's Mattias Hargin by 0.13 seconds and Italy's Patrick Thaler by nearly 0.40 seconds.
Hargin made up ground in the second run but not quite enough. He still, though, collected his first World Cup podium in two years.
Thaler, too, finished in the top three for the first time in a while -- since 2009.
"It's a special day for me," said the 35-year-old. "I was fighting for many years to come back on the podium and I have to thank a lot of people."
Ted Ligety had a weekend to forget in Val d'Isere.
A day after he failed to take part in the second run of a World Cup giant slalom for the first time in four years, the American didn't qualify for Sunday's second run, too.
Former overall champion Bode Miller didn't complete the first run, either.
"It was tough conditions where it was very hard snow but very grippy," U.S. men's alpine head coach Sasha Rearick told his team's website. "We've been training on ice getting ready for Val d'Isere and we didn't make that transition very well today.
"That's something we've got to work on in the future."
Worley wins in St. Moritz
At the women's giant slalom in St. Moritz, Switzerland, France's Tessa Worley beat Sweden's Jessica Lindell-Vikarby by 0.37 seconds and Slovenia's Tina Maze by 0.79 seconds.
But two big names didn't finish the first run -- overall leader Lara Gut of Switzerland and young U.S. phenom Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin had bib No. 1.
"I don't know how many people actually slid out where Mikaela did," said U.S. women's alpine head coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "There were a few. The snow was aggressive and at the same time somehow a little slick, because we saw the same type of DNFs (did not finishes) multiple times today."
