Chasing 78th win, Shiffrin takes big 1st-run lead in GS

SEMMERING, Austria (AP) — Overall women’s World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin has taken a big opening-run advantage in a giant slalom and positioned herself for a first win in the discipline in more than a year. Shiffrin had a blistering start at Semmering, Austria, and won considerable time on her rivals in the first 15 seconds of the run. The American finished 0.72 seconds ahead of Petra Vlhová of Slovakia. France’s Tessa Worley and Canada’s Valérie Grenier finished within four-hundredths of Vlhová’s time. Shiffrin says “from the first turn I felt very good.”