PARK CITY — For a few brief moments, time here raced back nine months.
Janica Kostelic's name was atop the leader board, just like it was back in February on this Park City hill when she won the third of four medals.
With a blink of the lights on the board, however, the moment passed, and Birgit Heeb-Batliner of Liechtenstein, a very small county of around 30,000 people in west central Europe, became the first winner in this year's America's Opening World Cup.
It was a moment Heeb-Batliner had been waiting for, for a long, long time. At 30, and one of the oldest racers on the circuit, she had never won a World Cup race.
She had made it to the podium four times before, once back in 1994 in Park City, in fact, but never, until now, had she been allowed to stand on the top step and accept the gold.
The last time Liechtenstein was able to claim a World Cup winner was 20 years ago.
Heeb-Batliner said she was a little girl when the country turned out to celebrated the success of Hanni Wenzel and her brother, Andreas, also a champion, and that those were very exciting times.
Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria, on the road to recovery after a series of accidents that many believed would end her career, was second, and Kostelic, from Croatia, ended up third.
Heeb-Batliner's two-run time was 2:26.78 seconds. Meissnitzer posted a 2:26.84 and Kostelic a 2:26.96.
And while Kostelic made history back in February by becoming the first skier to win four medals — three gold and one silver — in a single Olympics, this was her first podium visit in World Cup giant slalom racing. Her first finish in the top three in slalom was four years ago in Park City.
It was, for the Americans, one of those races that produce mixed feelings.
"I'm happy with my runs, and then again, I'm not," said Sarah Schleper, who was the top U.S. skier after the first run, sitting in 15th, but leaned into the hill, hit her hip on the snow on the second run and finished in 20th.
Teammates Kristen Clark and Kristina Koznick, finished 13th and 19th, respectively. Clark's time was 2:29.35.
It was good, said Jesse Hunt, alpine director for the U.S. Ski Team, to have three women qualify for a second run, "but the results tell us there's definitely an need to step it up. The women had sections on the course that were fast, and now we've got to build on those."
What separated Heeb-Batliner and Kostelic may, in fact, have been a tactical decision by coaches.
Course conditions for the first run were tricky. Kostelic was told, where Heeb-Batliner wasn't.
"Five skiers went out before me," Kostelic reported of her first run. "They told me to 'watch out, watch out.' I didn't give everything I could. I could have done a lot better. I made up time on the second run."
Heeb-Batliner's coaches chose not to give her a course report, fearing she might change her style.
"I did not know everyone went down before me. I just skied my best," she said. "I had a good feel on my skis."
Kostelic did not come into this race in perfect health. But then, she said, she is always plagued by health problems. In August, she underwent an appendectomy. On Thursday, she limped as she walked into the news conference.
"It's my back. I woke up this morning like this. It happens all the time. I woke up a month ago and my ankle was this big. I don't know why," she offered by way of explanation as she made a circle with her fingers about the size of a small watermelon.
"Right now I'm 50-50. I don't know, I'm never really healthy."
The men took over the course for a GS today. The women will return on Saturday for a slalom, followed on Sunday by a men's slalom. Races start at 10 a.m.
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