Queenstown based alpine skier, Alice Robinson, has won her first FIS World Cup podium at the age of seventeen today at the FIS World Cup in Andorra, New Zealand’s first Alpine Ski Racing World Cup medal in 17 years.
Robinson finished second by 0.3 of a second behind champion Mikaela Shiffrin (USA). The Kiwi PyeongChang Olympian earned a World Cup finals entry when she won the Junior World Championships earlier this year. The Andorra World Cup finals featured the top 25 skiers from this season and World Champion Petra Vlhova of Slovakia was third.
Born in Australia, Robinson moved with her family to Queenstown when she was aged four and started her ski racing career at Coronet Peak, eventually enrolling at Sugar Bowl ski academy in Tahoe, California to continue her year round training.
Far from a one hit wonder, Robinson has proven herself an alpine skier on the rise with numerous national titles in New Zealand including under 14s and under 16s. In 2015 she won the U14 Giant Slalom and Parallel Slalom at the Whistler Cup and went on to win the USSA U16 National Championship Giant Slalom in Utah.
In 2017 she won the New Zealand alpine National Championships for slalom and giant slalom, a NorAm Giant Slalom competition in Panorama. The same year she finished third in her debut FIS race at Cardrona and scored first in giant slalom the next day.
Shiffrin may well be feeling the heat on her own heels as Robinson is the only other FIS athlete who has progressed as fast as her in her debut competition year. Robinson has had a stellar northern World Cup season debut, ranking inside the top 70 in the world, winning the FIS Junior World Championships and now scoring silver behind the legend that is Shiffrin.
Shiffrin’s gold means the twenty four year old now has 60 FIS World Cup victories to her name, won her third consecutive Crystal Globe, sixth slalom globe, first super G globe and first giant slalom globe. Making Robinson’s achievement that much greater.
