France’s Worley wins in Killington

France’s Tessa Worley captured her first World Cup victory in three years on Saturday, by winning the women’s giant slalom in Killington, Vermont.
Worley, who suffered a serious right knee injury in 2013, clocked a combined total over the two runs of one minute, 59.26 seconds to edge runner-up Nina Loeseth on the Superstar Trail course.
“It is great. It is awesome,” the 27-year-old Worley said of her ninth World Cup win. “I mean physically I was feeling great for two years now. The injury was not that bad physically but mentally it was pretty tough.
Norwegian Loeseth finished second in 2:00.06 while Sofia Goggia of Italy placed third in 2:00.37.
American Mikaela Shiffrin rallied from eighth after the morning run to finish fourth.
Thirteen of 61 skiers were unable to complete the first run in the event which marked the first World Cup race in the eastern United States in 25 years.
Loeseth was fastest in the first run, but only by a slim margin. She led Worley by 0.09 seconds.
Worley, who made her World Cup debut at age 16, tore her anterior cruciate ligament at a slalom race in December 2013 in France.
The injury came just two days after she recorded her eighth World Cup giant slalom victory and caused her to miss the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
“It’s been long. In less than a year after my injury I felt 100 percent physically. The tough part was to get my racing spirit back and to be able to give everything,” Worley said.
Worley finished in sixth place behind winner Lara Gut in the first giant slalom of the season at Soelden, Austria.
She moves into first place in the World Cup giant slalom standings with 140 points, 15 points ahead of Shiffrin.
Loeseth equalled her career best result in giant slalom, saying she surprised herself with a second-place finish.
“I didn?t think it was going to be enough even for a podium and thought I was for sure four seconds off,” Loeseth said. “I had a few mistakes, but I think everybody did.
“I ski on feeling, so I always like to feel good, but sometimes you just have to leave the feelings in the start and just go.”
The 24-year old Goggia was ecstatic with her first career podium finish.
“I?m really happy because on the first run I didn?t ski that well, and it was pretty unexpected to podium today, Goggia said.
“I really wanted to ski as fast as I could on the second run and I actually did.
“It?s great to do my first podium here in America because I really like America east coast, west coast, the whole USA.”