Canada’s Valérie Grenier shakes off nerves to win giant slalom at World Cup Finals

Valérie Grenier was so anxious, her arm trembled just from reaching for her water bottle.

The Canadian alpine skier was leading after the first giant slalom run at the Lillehammer World Cup Finals in Hafjell, Norway, and couldn’t hide her nerves as she waited for the decisive second race down the mountain.

“I was shaking, a little jittery, and felt weird. I hadn’t felt like that before,” Grenier said. “Hoping no one noticed and trying to pretend like it wasn’t happening.

“I wanted it so badly because it would just be a perfect moment, and I knew that if I messed up, it could be gone just like that.”

A little positive self-talk and deep breaths helped Grenier overcome those butterflies and close the alpine season with a victory, posting a combined time of two minutes 16.79 seconds to stand atop the podium in the final race of the World Cup calendar Wednesday.

The 29-year-old from St-Isidore, Ont., who started 15th, led after the opening run with a time of 1:07.90 — just 0.02 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Sara Hector — and held her edge in the second. She delivered the third-fastest second run to secure the win by 0.43 seconds.

“I was pretty nervous, but then to see that I was actually able to hold on to the lead, it was the best feeling ever,” she said in a phone interview from Norway. “I knew that if I just gave it my all, I had a lot to gain, but nothing to lose.

“It was a bit of mixed feelings, but yeah, I felt (the nerves) a lot more than other races. So it was pretty special, but I’m glad I was able to handle it … I was able to tell myself, ‘No, you got this.’”

Norway’s Mina Fuerst Holtmann finished second, while Austria’s Julia Scheib was third. Britt Richardson, of Canmore, Alta., placed 20th.

It was Grenier’s third career World Cup victory, with her first two coming at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in January 2023 and 2024. She also earned her sixth career podium and her second of the season after a bronze in giant slalom at the December stop in Mont-Tremblant, Que., where she trains and learned to ski.

The win follows a pair of disappointing results for Grenier, who placed 13th in the giant slalom at last month’s Milan Cortina Olympics and did not finish her first run in Are, Sweden, on March 14.

“Recently, my confidence hasn’t been as high as I would like it to be, so I think today I felt good but not that good,” Grenier said. “But once again, at the same time, I knew I had nothing to lose, so I could really kind of go all out and send it.”

Grenier ended the season ranked seventh in the World Cup giant slalom standings and 22nd overall with 384 points, best among Canadians.

She celebrated at the finish with Canadian teammates Richardson and Laurence St-Germain before the whole team raised a glass at a hillside bar. Making the moment even more special, it was Grenier’s final race with her technician of three years, Nicolò Carpentieri.

Grenier will return to Tremblant for a brief break before getting back on skis in May in France. She’s already looking forward to next season, especially after finishing on top.

“Ending on a high note like that is amazing,” she said. “It’s perfect because it makes me hungry already for next season, and it shows me that I’m in a good spot.”

American star Mikaela Shiffrin, meanwhile, secured a record-tying sixth overall World Cup title after finishing 11th in the race. Germany’s Emma Aicher, who needed a win to have a chance at the crown, placed 12th.

“It’s quite emotional,” Shiffrin said. “This thing sums up a whole season of work and fighting with the whole team and I have to say to Emma that her skiing has been just outstanding and today it was just so cool to watch her, especially on the first run.

“I think the outcome of this day is that she can do this. And I think that’s the coolest thing about ski racing — that anything is possible,” Shiffrin added.

Shiffrin finished the season with 1,410 points, 87 ahead of Aicher, matching Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Pröll for the most overall titles in women’s World Cup history.

Moser-Pröll won five straight titles from 1971-75, then a sixth in 1979. Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and ’23.

Lindsey Vonn is third on the women’s list with four overall titles.

Marcel Hirscher leads the men’s list with eight overall titles.

With files from The Associated Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2026.