Coming off an injury-plagued season, Lake Tahoe skier AJ Hurt has clearly bounced back, demonstrated by her second trip to the podium this year with a third place Saturday in the World Cup women’s Giant Slalom in Soldeu, Andorra.
Hurt, 23, is the first U.S. woman other than Mikaela Shiffrin to earn a giant slalom podium since Lindsey Vonn in 2015. It’s also her first career podium appearance in the Giant Slalom.
Hurt, who calls Palisades Tahoe her home ski resort and in her youth was a Team Palisades Tahoe program member, earned her first podium by placing third in the Slalom competition in Slovenia five weeks ago. This year she’s also had two top-10 results in GS prior to Saturday’s race.
This was a breakthrough moment for Hurt, whose best World Cup slalom result prior to this year was 29th in Flachau in 2021. Nursing an injury, Shiffrin didn’t compete in Saturday’s GS due to a lingering knee injury. Hurt’s U.S. teammate Paula Moltzan finished 11th.
“This is such a cool mountain. I’ve never competed here before and it was really fun,” Hurt said. “I thought to myself, either I’m going to fly off the course or I’m going to finish with a fast time.”
Hurt finished third overall after starting the second run in the sixth position. She was just 0.15 seconds behind the day’s winner, Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, and 0.14 off second-place finisher, New Zealand’s Alice Robinson.
Hurt’s performance included the fourth-fastest second run, propelling her three positions higher and earning a spot on the podium. It was a similar
showing by Hurt in her previous podium appearance, January in Slovenia, where Hurt rallied from 16th place after the first run by posting the fastest second run to take third place.
“I didn’t really know what to expect coming into today because I’ve never been here before,” Hurt said. “I was hurt all last season, so I’m excited to even be ski racing at all. So I went as hard as I could, and I’m glad this is the outcome.”
Hurt is no newcomer; this is her seventh season on the World Cup tour. She competed for the U.S. at the World Championships in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in 2022.
Growing up in Carnelian Bay, at age 4 Hurt entered the Team Palisades program and fell in love with the sport. Her father has been a member of the Palisades Tahoe (formerly Squaw Valley) Ski Patrol for the past 30 years,
