Coming off a ninth-place finish at a World Cup slalom race in Zagreb, Croatia, Jackson-born U.S. Ski Team racer Resi Stiegler said she knows she can get even faster.

“I’m excited,” Stiegler said. “I finally put two good runs together, and I feel like I have a lot more in me.”

Stiegler tore a ligament in her knee at the end of the 2012 season and only returned to the snow in October.

“A lot of these girls have been training since this summer,” she said. “I still have a couple more weeks of training to be back where I need to be, but I feel like I’m getting there.”

Stiegler said she is starting to feel comfortable on her skis and now has to work on the details.

She will spend the next week in Soelden, Austria, training and reviewing video from her most recent race before heading to Flachau, Austria, for her next race on Jan. 15.

“It’s fun because every race I have something new to work on,” Stiegler said.

The slalom race in Croatia was Stiegler’s fourth of the 2013 World Cup season and her best result since shortly before she tore her ACL last spring.

After not finishing in her first slalom in Aspen, Colo., Stiegler was able to complete races in Are, Sweden, and Semmering, Austria, turning in 27th- and 26th-place performances, respectively. In each race, she said, she completed one good run, but failed to turn in two competitive times.

In Croatia, Stiegler said, hard work and good coaching helped her finish both runs with good times.

After Flachau, Stiegler will ski in Maribor, Slovakia, on Jan. 27. The race in Slovakia will be her final before the International Ski Federation Alpine Ski World Championships in mid-February.

From 2004 to 2008, Stiegler was a regular top-10 finisher, but four years of injury sidetracked her career until her return in 2012.
Stiegler’s injury last spring came on the heels of a second-place finish in Ofterschwang, Germany, the best World Cup finish of her career. With the ninth-place finish, Stiegler has now finished in the top 10 18 times.

Her Olympic debut came in 2006 in Torino, where she placed 11th in the combined and 12th in the slalom.

Stiegler’s return has been overshadowed by 17-year-old teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, who won her second World Cup slalom race of the year in Zagreb on Friday.

Shiffrin edged the second-place finisher by 1.19 seconds and came in 3.38 seconds ahead of Stiegler.

Stiegler is the daughter of Carrie Stiegler and Austrian Olympic gold medalist Josef “Pepi” Stiegler, who was director of the Mountain Sports School at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort from its inception in 1965 until 1994.