Low-ranked Petra Vlhova of Slovakia pulled off a surprise by leading the opening run of a World Cup slalom in Are, Sweden, on Sunday with the dominant Mikaela Shiffrin out injured.
The 20-year-old Vlhova won the slalom at the 2014 world junior championships but has never finished better than seventh on the World Cup circuit.
Starting with the No. 19 bib, Vlhova took a decent lead of 0.28 seconds ahead of Nina Loeseth of Norway.
Austrian veteran Michaela Kirchgasser was third, 0.57 back.
Shiffrin, the Olympic and two-time world champion, flew home to the United States for exams on her right knee after crashing while warming up for Saturday’s giant slalom race. The American won the last five slalom races stretching back to last season.