American Paula Moltzan became the oldest woman to claim her first Alpine skiing World Cup victory on Saturday, pipping Albania’s Lara Colturi by just one-hundredth of a second in a thrilling season-opening giant slalom at Sölden, Austria.

Moltzan, who was fifth after the opening run, produced a superb second descent to finish with a combined time of 2min 14.82sec, narrowly denying her Italian-born Albanian rival, who finished in 2min 14.83sec. Germany’s Emma Aicher completed the podium, 0.52sec behind the Minnesota native.

“It feels like a fairy tale right now,” Moltzan said afterward. “Pretty unreal and I think it will take a minute to settle in.”

The victory marked a long-sought breakthrough for Moltzan, who debuted on ski racing’s top flight in 2012 and was dropped from the US team a decade ago. The 32-year-old, who won an Olympic bronze in the team combined event at the Milano Cortina Games in February, had finished second or third in 10 previous World Cup races across 13 seasons without ever reaching the top step of the podium.

Starting the second run in fifth place, the American clocked 1min 7.86sec in increasingly foggy conditions to move four spots up the standings and set a target that none of the remaining contenders could beat.

“In the second run I knew I had to send it,” Moltzan said. “A lot of people tend to back off when it gets dark and, for me, I just want to push harder. It’s just an opportunity to be brave and take a chance.”

She added: “You have to kind of fake it till you make it. And yeah, I guess I faked it well enough today.”

The 19-year-old Colturi, who had been sixth after the opening run, came agonizingly close to denying Moltzan her moment, crossing 0.01sec behind the winning time to come up short by the slimmest of margins.

Aicher also made a significant move, climbing from ninth after the first run to third, while Sweden’s Sara Hector slipped from second to fourth, 0.63sec off the pace.

Moltzan’s American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, seeking a record-extending 111th World Cup victory, had led after the opening run but struggled amid the deteriorating visibility, sliding wide on one turn, and fell to seventh overall, 0.83sec behind the winner.

Shiffrin, who equalled the women’s record with her sixth overall World Cup title in March, has described the new campaign as an “exploration season” in which she plans to race less frequently in her signature slalom discipline to concentrate on giant slalom and super-G. The 31-year-old has not won a giant slalom race since December 2023, despite holding the women’s record with 22 career victories in the discipline.

Saturday’s race also saw the return of Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová, the 2022 Olympic slalom champion and 2021 overall World Cup winner, who finished 23rd in her first appearance on the World Cup circuit since January 2024 following a 33-month injury layoff.

Italy’s Federica Brignone, who won Olympic gold in giant slalom and super-G on home snow in February, was absent as she continues her recovery from surgery in August.

For Moltzan, the result represented an immediate reward for a bold late-career equipment change. In May, she ended an 18-year association with French manufacturer Rossignol to join Van Deer–Red Bull Sports, becoming the first woman to race for the Austrian brand, which had previously supplied only male skiers.

“I’ve been working a really long time for my first victory, but also, I never would have expected it would have happened first race on new material,” Moltzan said. “I guess it just proves that we’re doing something right.”

The result also gave the United States two skiers inside the top seven, with AJ Hurt finishing 13th, Elisabeth Bocock 14th and Nina O’Brien tied for 16th. It also made Moltzan the first American woman other than Shiffrin to win a World Cup tech race since Lindsey Vonn claimed giant slalom gold in Åre, Sweden, in December 2015.

Moltzan has also been making headlines away from the slopes. In an interview with the Athletic published on Friday, she discussed her campaign to expand fertility treatment coverage for US Olympic athletes, a cause she has promoted by racing with a floral uterus design on her helmet.

The Minnesotan has argued that female athletes should not have to choose between pursuing their sporting ambitions and starting families, and is pushing for greater fertility benefits through the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

For now, Moltzan has every reason to savor the biggest victory of her career, achieved on the Rettenbach glacier slope in the traditional opening race of the World Cup season. “I can’t imagine a better start,” she said. “I’m really, really, really excited and I can’t wait to see everybody who’s here cheering us on.”