A bundle of nerves atop an imposing giant slalom course ahead of Sunday’s second run, 19-year-old Cassidy Gray went to work and earned points for a 26th-place performance at the women’s World Cup event in Slovenia.
Her combined time of two minutes 24.25 seconds is considered one of the best starts to a World Cup career for a Canadian in recent memory.
“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time to start a World Cup and to get to do it here, with this team was amazing,” Cassidy, who hails from Panorama, B.C., tolf Alpine Canada after her second run in Kranjska Gora. “Today was a crazy first run and I was so nervous for the second run.
“I’m overall really happy with how it went. Now that I see what I can do I have a lot more confidence going into the next races.”
Gray, who also skis with the University of Colorado Buffaloes, qualified for a second run in Saturday’s race but didn’t finish.
Canadian teammate Val Grenier of St. Isidore, Ont., moved up one spot from Saturday to conclude 15th in 2:22.05 in her fifth race back from injury.
Marta Bassino won her second World Cup giant slalom in two days after first-run leader Mikaela Shiffrin dropped to sixth.
The Italian skier has won four of the five races in the discipline this campaign, with Shiffrin winning the only other event, in Courchevel in December. “It’s so amazing, I am so emotional. It’s like a dream, I can’t believe it,” Bassino stated from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia while fighting back tears in a TV interview.
The result saw Bassino closing in on a 13-year-old record: No Italian skier won more than four giant slaloms in a single season since Denise Karbon won a record five events in the 2007-08 campaign.
