Robinson (17) won the opening giant slalom event at the first World Cup event of the year, at the Rettenbach Glacier in Solden, Austria yesterday.
The event attracts the world's best racers. The 17-year-old with just 10 World Cup starts to her name wasted no time making her presence felt, skiing from start bib nine into second place on her first run, just 0.14sec behind reigning overall FIS World Cup Champion Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States.
Robinson has made a big impact in recent times.
She is the current junior world champion in giant slalom and claimed her first World Cup medal in March this year, finishing second at the FIS Alpine World Cup Finals in Andorra. It was NZ's first Alpine ski racing World Cup medal in 17 years.
With the start order of the top-30 racers flipped for run two, Robinson was the second-last racer through the gates on run two, putting down a blistering run to take the lead.
She then had a anxious wait to watch the champion American in action.
Shiffrin recorded the fastest time at the first split before falling behind the pace set by the young New Zealander, to finish 0.06sec behind Robinson, in the silver position. Bronze medal went to World Cup veteran Tessa Worley, of France.
It was a thrilling win for Robinson, who was not getting ahead of herself.
"It's pretty crazy," she said after the race.
"It was very close. I was a little nervous but I just tried to keep calm and enjoy it all."
