World champion Henrik Kristoffersen won a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday in Val d’Isere, France, for his first victory in nearly two years after first-run leader Steven Amiez saw his dreams of a first win dashed.
Kristoffersen had two flawless runs on the challenging Face de Bellevarde course to finish 0.52 seconds ahead of Norwegian teammate Atle Lie McGrath and 0.89 faster than Loic Meillard of Switzerland.
It was a first victory for Kristoffersen since he triumphed in the world championships in February 2023.
It also came with a bit of luck, with the absence of injured Olympic champion Clement Noel and a tumble for Amiez, who had beaten Kristoffersen by 0.32 in the first run for hopes of a first victory in front of a home crowd.
The 26-year-old Amiez had never finished on a World Cup podium and his previous best was fourth in Austria last month.
Reigning World Cup champion Manuel Feller was joint-fourth but the Austrian will have just been happy to have crossed the finish line.
Feller dominated last season — finishing fifth or better in each slalom on his way to winning the discipline title — but had failed to finish each of his previous four races, between slalom and giant slalom.
Canadians Simon Fournier (51.24) and Erik Read (50.93) did not qualify for the second run.
The two slalom races were won by Noel but he pulled out of the Val-d’Isere race in the morning after injuring his ankle in the giant slalom the previous day.
While the injury is not thought to be serious, Noel said he didn’t want to take any risks and hopes to return for the next slalom in Alta Badia in eight days.
Marco Schwarz made his return after almost a year out injured and was 10th after the opening run, 1.73 behind Amiez. The Austrian straddled a gate and was one of several of the late skiers to fail to finish the second run as the light worsened.
