World Ski Championships : Schneider Makes It 7 of 8 for Swiss

Vreni Schneider won the women’s giant slalom at the World Alpine Ski Championships Thursday to give Switzerland a record seven victories in eight races so far.

Mateja Svet of Yugoslavia took the silver, preventing a second Swiss sweep of the medals, as Maria Walliser of Switzerland edged teammate Michela Figini for third.

Schneider’s winning aggregate was 2:21.22, while Svet had a combined time of 2:21.78.

Schneider raced to a nearly perfect first run in 1:09.96. Svet came back in the second run with a time of 1:10.94.

The top American was Eva Twardokens of Olympic Valley, Calif., 13th in a time of 2:24.83.

Debbie Armstrong of Seattle was 17th and Tamara McKinney of Olympic Valley was 18th. Beth Madsen of Aspen, Colo., was 30th.

Diann Roffe of Williamson, N.Y., who won the giant slalom in the previous world championships in 1985, was 16th after the first run and dropped out of the race when she hit a rut in the second run, went wide and missed a gate.

Today is an off-day, with the women’s slalom scheduled for Saturday. The meet ends Sunday with the men’s slalom.