By USSA

SEMMERING, Austria — Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) battled a rugged Audi FIS Alpine World Cup in Semmering on Dec. 28 to finish a career best eighth in giant slalom and leap into 10th in the overall World Cup standings.

Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) finished 25th as wind and fog made the already bumpy course exponentially more challenging.

Austrian Anna Fenninger posted the wire-to-wire win with a massive 1.1 second margin over Slovenian overall leader Tina Maze.

A slalom is slated for Saturday, a year to the day after Shiffrin’s first World Cup podium. Shiffrin claimed her first World Cup win with slalom victory a week ago in Are, Sweden and currently leads the World Cup slalom standings.

Lindsey Vonn (Vail) did not start and is still regaining strength following a late November stomach illness.

The U.S. Ski Team now as three women in the World Cup overall top 10 (Vonn 5, Mancuso 7, Shiffrin 10).