CARRABASSETT VALLEY — The 2022 U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf ended Thursday with a Canadian standing on the highest step of the podium.
Britt Richardson skied the fastest time in both runs of the women’s giant slalom but only edged United States Olympian Paula Moltzan by 15 hundredths of a second for the national title.
Richardson, an 18-year-old from Alberta, finished the first run in 1:00.15, while Moltzan finished in 1:00.29. The second run was even closer, Richardson clocking a 1:01.74 and Moltzan a 1:01.75.
Richardson’s combined time was 2 minutes, 1.89 seconds, while Moltzan’s was 2:02.89.
Between Nor-Am Cup, FIS and national championships, Richardson has won five times over the past two months: four giant slaloms and one super-G, which came in a Nor-Am Cup race at Whiteface Mountain in New York.
Moltzan has proven herself as one of the United States’ top skiers in the tech events. The 27-year-old from Minnesota won the women’s slalom national championship on Tuesday. At the Beijing Olympics in February, she placed eighth in the slalom and 12th in the GS.
Moltzan is the third-highest American (behind overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson, who is 28th) in the World Cup overall standings, at 39th. In the tech events, she ranks 19th in the slalom and 22nd in the GS — only Shiffrin, second in slalom and third in GS, ranks higher among U.S. skiers.
AJ Hurt, the 2018 U.S. champion in the giant slalom, placed third Thursday with a combined time of 2:03.80. Another former national GS champ, Katie Hensien in 2020, placed fourth.
Norway’s Kaja Norbye took fifth and Tricia Mangan of the United States was sixth. Keely Cashman, who won the GS title at the 2019 national championships, was 11th.
Boothbay native Ella Spear placed 44th. Spear attended Carrabassett Valley Academy and currently is a member of the Colby College Alpine ski team. In early March, she capped the college season by competing at the NCAA Division III championships in Utah.
Sugarloaf was hosting the U.S. Alpine Championships for the eighth time. The winners of this year’s national championships are Isabella Wright and Jared Goldberg in the downhill, Moltzan and Jett Seymour in the slalom and Richardson and George Steffey in the giant slalom. The super-G championships were canceled due to weather last week.
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