Results Round-Up: Podiums, Progress, and World Cup debuts
Britain's Park & Pipe team shone on China's biggest stages, while there was Cross Country, Moguls, Para-Nordic, and Alpine action in Europe and North America
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Results Round-Up: Flying start
Levi Slalom sees Brits lay down a marker with lifetime best for Laurie Taylor
A first weekend of action in the 2025/26 season for GB Snowsport World Cup squad athletes saw the Men’s Alpine Slalom team make history not once, but twice, with a career-best performance from Laurie Taylor the clear highlight.
The weekend’s action had already guaranteed historic status with the news that Britain would enter four athletes into an Alpine World Cup race for the first time in history as Luca Carrick-Smith lined up to make his debut alongside the regular Slalom World Cup team of Taylor, Billy Major, and Dave Ryding. But by the time the race concluded, Britain had two athletes in the top-10 for only the second time in Men’s Alpine World Cup history and three in the top-30 as the team excelled at the first Slalom race of the year.
Taylor’s performance was the clear highlight, with the 29-year-old producing a blistering second run, the fastest in the field, to catapult himself from 15th position at the turn to the leader’s chair. With one racer left on course, Taylor remained in the podium positions, only to be nudged out by 0.04s, nevertheless claiming the best result of his World Cup career.
Earlier, Dave Ryding kicked off the first race of his final season on the World Cup tour with a typically gritty performance which saw the veteran cruise into the top-10 for a seventh placed finish, just over 0.50s behind Taylor. Billy Major, meanwhile, looked in solid early season form to finish 27th for his sixth top-30 placing since the beginning of last season.
In the first action of the weekend, Victoria Palla made the ninth start of her World Cup career, finishing outside of the second run qualification spots but gaining valuable experience as she looks to build on the impressive showing she made at the Alpine World Championships last winter.
Header Image: Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
