Camille Rast is the youngest Swiss slalom winner. The woman from Valais thinks it's "absolutely crazy how fast I'm going right now".
The 25-year-old from the Valais secured victory in the slalom in Killington, Vermont, with a convincing margin: the ex-aequo second-placed duo Wendy Holdener/Anna Swenn Larsson saw themselves distanced by more than half a second. "I'm so happy with the way I'm skiing at the moment," said Rast, who followed up her first two World Cup podiums with her first victory.
With 287 points already in her account, she also took the lead in the overall standings from Mikaela Shiffrin, who was forced to take a break after a crash, while the former Junior World Champion in Slalom (2017) is also ahead in the discipline World Cup. This initially elicited a "Wow, I can't believe it yet" from Rast in the winner's interview, before she immediately pointed out "that the season is still young" despite her emotional elation. But of course, things are going so well for her, "I want to keep going like this".
"We train together so often"
When asked about the thoughts that were going through her head before the decisive second run, Camille Rast said: "Do it for yourself and have fun." The Romande, who was in a perfect lurking position just twelve hundredths behind the half-time leader Lena Dürr after half of the stint, put this motto into practice with the third-best run time once again: "I skied fast and had fun."
The team result - alongside Holdener, her Valais canton colleague Mélanie Meillard (5th) was also in the top five - made Rast even happier: "I'm extremely happy because we train together so often. To be on the podium together with Wendy is crazy. I'm also so happy for Mélanie."
Killington a special place for Holdener
Like Rast, Wendy Holdener also went full throttle in the second run and made up seven positions thanks to her best time: "I took my heart in my hands and it worked. I realized that it was going well. It was 'awesome' to drive. But I wouldn't have thought that I'd make it this far forward." After the first run in the morning, in which she made a major mistake, she was only in ninth place, 1.08 seconds behind.
Killington is a very good place for her, says Holdener, who finally achieved her first World Cup victory on this slope two years ago after 30 top-3 finishes in the slalom. The 31-year-old also stood on the slalom podium at the same venue a year ago. Shortly after this 3rd place in Killington, Holdener injured her ankle and now, after a good twelve months of waiting, she has made it back onto the podium. "It's just fun to race here."
SDA
