By USSA

ARE, Sweden — Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) skied a brilliant bottom section to finish 14th in Wednesday’s Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom held under the lights in Are.

“Julia is still trying some things with her equipment and she was using the same ski she used in Courchevel in the first run and it just didn’t work out,” head coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. “The snow conditions were totally different. She switched skis for the second run and she was two-tenths out of the fastest time. It was good progress and we’re going to keep that going. She’s going to skip tomorrow’s slalom and focus on testing GS skis.”

Mikaela Shiffrin (Vail) had also made the final with the 17th fastest opening run, but hooked a gate with her right shoulder and was bounced off course.

German Olympic GS champion Viktoria Rebensburg halted the four-race discipline win streak of Slovenia’s Tina Maze with her first victory of the season. Maze finished third behind Anna Fenninger of Austria.

Reigning overall champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail) did not start while continuing to regain strength from an intestinal infection.