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Alice Robinson wins in Kranjska Gora: a World Cup race that moved
A lack of snow in Maribor sent the women's World Cup races to Kranjska Gora in February 2020. On an icy, bumpy course, 18-year-old Alice Robinson of New Zealand won the giant slalom.
On 15 February 2020 the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's giant slalom was held in Kranjska Gora. Photos are in the giant slalom gallery.
From Maribor to Kranjska Gora
The women's technical races were due to take place in Maribor, where the Golden Fox, Slovenia's traditional women's World Cup event, is usually held on the slopes of Pohorje. A mild winter left too little snow, so the races moved to Kranjska Gora in the Julian Alps, better known as the home of the men's World Cup races on the Podkoren course.
A hard course
The Podkoren slope has a reputation as one of the toughest technical courses on the circuit, and on race day it was icy and bumpy. It suited skiers who could stay calm and attack at the same time.
The race
Petra Vlhová of Slovakia led after the first run. In the second run Alice Robinson of New Zealand, then just 18, put down the fastest time of the day and moved past Vlhová to win by around a third of a second. It was her second World Cup giant slalom win of the season. Slovenia's Meta Hrovat finished third, to the delight of the home crowd.
Mikaela Shiffrin, the dominant skier of that era, was absent following the death of her father, which made the race unusually open.
Kranjska Gora
Kranjska Gora sits in the Upper Sava Valley near the borders with Austria and Italy, surrounded by the peaks of the Julian Alps. It has hosted World Cup races for decades and has the infrastructure to step in quickly, as it did in 2020.
See the giant slalom photos from Kranjska Gora, or browse more sport galleries.
From the gallery: Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Giant Slalom
See all 44 photographs
