New Zealand’s Alice Robinson Delivers Masterclass, Storming To A Commanding Victory In Women’s GS At Copper

New Zealand’s Alice Robinson delivered a masterclass in aggressive skiing on Saturday, storming to a commanding victory in the women’s Giant Slalom at the Stifel Copper Cup.

The 23-year-old Kiwi clocked a combined time of 1:58.91, finishing a massive 0.96 seconds ahead of Austria’s Julia Scheib. Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund rounded out the podium in third, 1.08 seconds off the pace.

The victory marked Robinson’s fifth career World Cup Giant Slalom win, a milestone that carries historical weight. With this triumph, she breaks a tie with compatriot Claudia Riegler to become the most successful female Alpine ski racer from outside Europe or North America in World Cup history.

"I didn't know that, but that is pretty cool," Robinson said after being told of the record. "It's always really special for me to represent New Zealand, especially in a sport like ski racing that's so dominated by North America and Europe, so I'm really proud of that."

Robinson’s dominance began early in the day. She laid down a blistering first run on the high-altitude Colorado course, establishing a 0.29-second lead over Sweden's Sara Hector. While many racers struggled with the thin air and demanding pitch at 10,000 feet, Robinson attacked the course with her trademark physicality.

Her second run, however, was a battle of sheer will. Despite expanding her lead, Robinson admitted she felt far less composed than she looked.

But she only managed to convert one of those podiums into a victory, and a costly DNF at the World Cup finals handed the discipline Crystal Globe to Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol).

That disappointing end to last season spilled over into this year's opener in Sölden, where Robinson finished eighth, a performance that dented her confidence but ultimately didn't break her.

"I was really not feeling that confident coming into this race, so I'm really proud of myself that I just trusted my instinct and just skied how I wanted," the Sydney-born skier said. "I honestly felt pretty gutted about Sölden and I think in the past I'd always let prior poor performances affect my next performance, so I really wanted to prove it to myself today that, 'OK, Sölden wasn't great, but you can pick yourself up and ski. It doesn't mean you aren't going to ski well today.'"

"It felt like two totally different runs," Robinson said. "The first one I felt in control and smooth; the second run felt wild and like I was recovering the whole time. So I was shocked to see the big green light."

The "green light"—signifying the lead—was never truly in doubt. Robinson matched the fastest time of the second run, proving that even when feeling "wild," her raw speed is currently unmatched in the discipline. 

For the home crowd, hopes were pinned on Mikaela Shiffrin, but the American superstar struggled to find her rhythm. After a difficult first run left her well off the pace, Shiffrin finished the day in 14th place. Her teammate, Nina O’Brien, was the top American finisher in 11th.

Austria’s Julia Scheib continued her strong start to the season, backing up her recent win in Sölden with a second-place finish. "I pushed harder in the second run," Scheib noted. "It was not easy with the light, but the conditions are the same for everyone."

But the Sölden winner recovered to move up from third to second, giving the 27-year-old as many World Cup podiums early in the campaign as she had made in her entire career coming into this season.

Despite admitting that the conditions were "totally different" from Sölden and not suited to her, Scheib approached the race the only way she knew how."I pushed," she said. "More in the second run, I pushed really hard."

That allowed her to edge Stjernesund into third, after the Norwegian put down a blistering second run, matched only by Robinson.

"I had so high expectations for this day because I know what I have in me," the 29-year-old said.

After toying with her ski set-up for the first run, Stjernesund was angry despite skiing into fifth place, describing it as "a Sunday trip, like we call it in Norway — you don't do anything, you just ski."

She changed her skis for the second run and it paid dividends as a dynamic performance vaulted her into the provisional lead and allowed her to leapfrog Hector (fourth) and Lena Duerr (GER/Head), who fell from fourth to sixth but still recorded her best career GS result.

"I was very happy that I dared to do that switch," Stjernesund said. "For sure, it's far from perfect, but I'm just so happy to see that it's enough for a podium."