Maier, Aamodt Post World Cup Victories

Ulrike Maier of Austria, twice a world champion but never the winner of a World Cup race, ended eight years of frustration by winning Saturday’s season-opening women’s giant slalom at Park City, Utah.

Maier, who won super-giant slalom gold medals in world championship competitions at Vail, Colo., in 1989 and Saalbach, Austria, in 1991, had climbed the podium 10 times--six seconds and four thirds--since joining the World Cup circuit in 1985. But she had never ascended the top step and, after eight seasons of trying, she was beginning to wonder whether she ever would.

“In every race, you think you can win, but after so many years, you begin to wonder if it will ever happen,” she said.

Maier was third after a bizarre first run in which only three of the top 15 seeded racers managed to gain the top 10. The set of the gates for the first run played to Maier’s strengths as a super-G skier, and although the second course was a bit tighter, she found a rhythm that gave her the margin to edge France’s Carole Merle.

Maier completed two trips down the 4,200-foot course in 2 minutes 21.87 seconds, .23 faster than Merle, the defending World Cup giant slalom champion.

Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider, seeking her 41st career victory, was third in 2:22.37.

The American team had been hoping for better things from its giant slalom team, but the first run put Julie Parisien, Diann Roffe-Steinrotter and Eva Twardokens too far back. Parisien finished ninth, best on the team.

Austria’s Petra Kronberger, the three-time defending World Cup overall champion, finished 25th in 2:24.62.