ALPINE SKIING: Alpine skier Greta Small will make her debut on the World Cup circuit tomorrow, just one week after her 18th birthday.

An impressive effort for any teenager, Small will also break an Australian drought. The last time an Australian woman took to the start line of an alpine World Cup was in 2004.

It was alpine skier Jenny Owens, and Small was just 9-years-old.

Owens continued a small but mighty Australian representation in Alpine Skiing after Zali Steggall won Australia’s first individual Winter Olympic medal in 1998. Owens placed 9th in the Super Combined Alpine event at Salt Lake City in 2002 before switching to Ski Cross in 2010.

Now Owens (in Ski Cross) and Small are both looking to qualify for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

With 104 days to Sochi tomorrow, Small will race the Giant Slalom at the Soelden World Cup in Austria, earning her start by virtue of a 185th ranking on the FIS points list.

On such a huge occasion for the Victorian, she will at least feel comfortable racing on the doorstep of her Austrian training base in Pitztal.

Soelden is in the Tyrol region of Austria, also home to the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Innsbruck. Small finished seventh in the YOG Super G, carried the Australian flag at the Opening Ceremony and met her idol Lindsey Vonn (USA).

The Olympic Champion and four-time overall World Cup Champion will be a notable absentee from the starting line at this first World Cup.

Vonn, the girlfriend of golfer Tiger Woods, opted for an extra few weeks of rehab after a devastating knee injury to her anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments that has sidelined her since the World Championships in February.

Race update

The first hit-out of the northern hemisphere alpine skiing season proved testing, and Small describes her big debut as "a big learning experience." 

The 18-year-old finished 52nd in the first giant slalom run, 7.65s off the pace.

This meant that Small did not qualify for the second run, but she was nonetheless optimistic about the occassion.

"Mistakes in the steep cost me, but most importantly I had lots of fun. It can only get better from here!" she posted on her Facebook fan page.

Lara Gut (SUI), Kathrin Zettel (AUT) and Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) took the top honours.