The opening race in Sölden was won by Gut-Behrami, who finished in second place in the discipline last season (her best-ever season finish in the GS discipline).[2] Gut-Behrami followed up that victory by winning the second race in Killington as well.[3] However, both of the next two races in Tremblant, Canada (Quebec) were won by 2020 discipline champion Brignone, who thus moved into second, narrowly behind Gut-Behrami, for the season, with defending discipline champion Shiffrin in third for both races and for the season.[4]
Back in Europe after Christmas, Shiffrin won the giant slalom at Lienz for her 92nd career victory overall, with Brignone second and Gut-Behrami sixth, moving Brignone into the discipline lead by 35 points over her Swiss rival and 80 points over the American, with everyone else over 150 points behind.[5] However, the first post-Christmas race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia took place in pouring rain and slushy conditions and was won in an upset by Valérie Grenier of Canada, with Gut-Behrami gaining twenty points on Brignone and closing to just 15 points behind.[6] The next race went into the Low Tatras of Slovakia, about 17km south of the hometown of former overall season champion and current discipline contender Petra Vlhová, but unfortunately featured Vlhová suffering a season-ending injury near the beginning of her opening run.[7] Despite that, the race was won convincingly by Sweden's Sara Hector, with only Shiffrin and New Zealand's Alice Robinson finishing within four seconds of her combined time; meanwhile, sixth-place Gut-Behrami grabbed the overall discipline lead by 25 points over Brignone, who also failed to finish her first run.[8]
With Shiffrin also out with an ligament sprain (which turned out to be serious enough that she never returned during the season), Gut-Behrami then blew out the field in Kronplatz, winning her third giant slalom of the season by over a second over Hector and Robinson and opening an 85-point lead over Brignone with only three events remaining.[9] At the next race, a giant slalom in Soldeu, Andorra, Gut-Behrami won again, coming from ninth after the first run to edge Alice Robinson by one-one-hundredth of a second to virtually clinch her first career discipline title in giant slalom, with a 135-point lead over Brignone with just two races to go, and no one else still in contention.[10] However, in the penultimate race at Åre, Brignone rallied from over a second down after the first run with the fastest time on the second run to win the race and remain alive for the championship at 95 points behind Gut-Behrami with just the finals remaining.[11]
Finals
The World Cup finals in the discipline took place on Sunday, 17 March 2024 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup giant slalom discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline, plus any skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, were eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 earned World Cup points. In this race, the winner of the women's giant slalom Junior World Championship (Britt Richardson) was already eligible as one of the top 25 skiers in the discipline for the season (tied for 25th), and two skiers with at least 500 points who weren't otherwise eligible chose to compete (Michelle Gisin and Lena Dürr). Due to injuries, four qualifiers (Shiffrin, Vhlová, Grenier, and Sofia Goggia) did not compete, leaving a field of 24 skiers.
Because of the special scoring rules for the finals, the only way for Brignone to win the season title over Gut-Behrami involved two steps: (1) Brignone winning the final (worth 100 points), and (2) Gut-Behrami not finishing in the top 15 in the final (worth 0 points), giving Brignone a 5-point victory. Brignone lived up to her part of the challenge, winning the race almost a second and a half composite over Alice Robinson. However, skiing cautiously, Gut-Behrami finished the final in 10th (worth 26 points), giving her both her first discipline championship in giant slalom (by 21 points) and the overall season championship (208 points ahead and only 200 points remaining).[12]
