Womens First World Cup Slalom Race 2010

 LEVI, Finland — Marlies Schild of Austria won the first women's World Cup slalom of the season, edging Olympic champion Maria Riesch of Germany by 0.03 seconds in a race north of the Arctic Circle. Lindsey Vonn was sixth.  Schild was fifth after the first run and trailed Riesch by 0.81 seconds, then had the fastest time on the second leg of the Levi Black course. Tanja Poutiainen of Finland was third.  Vonn looked set to challenge for the podium after a fast start to her second leg, but the American nearly lost her balance halfway down the course.  "I just made a really, really big mistake unfortunately," she said. "I was going a little bit too straight and I was trying a little bit too hard. Sometimes you make mistakes when you are risking. We've got a final training block in Vail for the next couple of weeks and then we head over to Aspen for Thanksgiving and onto Lake Louise. It's going to be an exciting couple of weeks in North America."

The U.S. Ski Team contributed to this report.

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