Camille Rast made her first world championships medal a gold and a Swiss one-two in the slalom in Saalbach, Austria, on Saturday.
Rast, 25, prevailed by 46 hundredths over Wendy Holdener combining times from two runs. Rast was fastest in the opening run by 58 hundredths, then had the fourth-fastest second run.
Austrian Katharina Liensberger took bronze, two hundredths in front of American Paula Moltzan and five hundredths ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin was third after the first run in her third race back since being sidelined two months after tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash.
“It’s a little bit strange to be kind of making a return midseason, and especially world championships,” Shiffrin said on Peacock. “It’s sort of strange to balance the feeling of, like, I just want to progress and then the feeling of, like, where do medals fit into that? I think winning one gold (in the team combined on Tuesday) was out of this world beyond expectations. And the end, today was something that I can learn from and, hopefully, continue to recover well for the rest of the season.”
ALPINE SKIING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Rast, a former mountain bike racer, began the season with zero individual World Cup podiums. She then made three consecutive podiums in the fall and leads this season’s World Cup slalom season standings with two victories.
“I come here with not, like, no expectations, but if it’s good, it’s good, and if not, it’s not a problem for me (because) I’m having a good season right now,” she said.
The U.S. women nearly made it a medal in all five events at worlds for the first time. Four different Americans won medals across the women’s events for the first time ever: Breezy Johnson’s downhill gold, Johnson and Shiffrin’s team combined gold, Moltzan’s giant slalom bronze and Lauren Macuga’s super-G bronze.
“It’s an absolutely incredible place that we are as a team,” Shiffrin said.
Moltzan nearly made it two medals in a three-day stretch. She earned her first career individual world medal in Thursday’s giant slalom by one hundredth.
“Some days you’re on the right side of the hundredths, and some days you’re on the wrong,” she said. “I got it (Thursday) and missed it today. It’s OK.”
It’s the first time Shiffrin has not made the world championships slalom podium. She won four slalom titles in a row at the biennial worlds from 2013 to 2019, then took bronze in 2021 and silver in 2023.
“I’m definitely getting closer,” said Shiffrin, who was 10th in her first individual race back in a Jan. 30 World Cup slalom. “It’s eight weeks since I had surgery, and it’s six weeks since I was laying in bed with a drainage tube sticking out of me. So, perspective is important, but still we’re here, and I want to do well.”
Shiffrin said medical professionals told her the Nov. 30 puncture came very close to piercing organs. After video review, she believed she was impaled by the tip of one of her ski poles.
She said Monday that she still had “mental obstacles” to overcome specific to the giant slalom discipline before she returns to that event.
She said Saturday that she plans to race GS for the first time since the crash at next weekend’s World Cup stop in Sestriere, Italy. There are GS races on Friday and Saturday and a slalom on Sunday. Shiffrin has 99 career World Cup wins, an Alpine record.
“Trying to imagine taking on GS racing right now, it’s hard to imagine, but we’re going to try,” she said, noting a need to compete to keep her starting number low in the event. “We’ll see, but I think I can get there to the point that my GS skiing is good enough that I can race without it being dangerous.”
Worlds conclude Sunday with the men’s slalom, live at 3:45 and 7:15 a.m. ET on Peacock.
FIS World Alpine Skiing Championships 2025 Results — Women’s Slalom
Gold: Camille Rast (SUI) — 1:58.00
Silver: Wendy Holdener (SUI) — +.46
Bronze: Katharina Liensberger (AUT) — +1.32
4. Paula Moltzan (USA) — +1.34
5. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) — +1.37
6. Andreja Slokar (SLO) — +1.53
7. Katharina Truppe (AUT) — +2.03
8. Lena Duerr (GER) — +2.45
9. Zrinka Ljutic (CRO) — +2.73
10. Marion Chevrier (FRA) — +3.11
19. AJ Hurt (USA) — +5.70