Shiffrin races to third slalom win
Print Edition
American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin cemented her status as the best slalom skier in the women’s World Cup on Tuesday, winning a night race in Flachau, Austria, just 38 days before the same event at the Sochi Olympics.
Shiffrin held on to a commanding 0.90-second first-run lead to earn her third victory this season and seventh overall.
“Fun, it was really fun,” Shiffrin said. “It’s fun to ski like that in the first run. I was really letting it go. Every gate was coming faster and I liked it.”
The 18-year-old racer from Eagle-Vail, Colorado, overcame two mistakes in her final run to finish in a combined time of 1 minute, 45.83 seconds and beat Frida Hansdotter of Sweden by 0.83. Another Swede, Maria Pietilae-Holmner, was 1.14 back in third.
The significance of the win was certainly not lost on the American.
“It’s nice to sing my national anthem a couple of races before the Olympics,” Shiffrin said. “Hopefully I can sing it again in Sochi.”
Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who leads the overall standings, came fourth, 1.40 off the lead. Defending overall champion Tina Maze of Slovenia was 2.22 behind in 12th.
Shiffrin continues to make Hansdotter wait for her first career win again. Hansdotter has finished second in eight races — and on five occasions Shiffrin was the winner.
“I hope I don’t have to wait much longer,” Hansdotter said. “Maybe I’ve waited long enough and (my first win) comes in Sochi. I skied really good but I know I can do better. Mikaela was unbeatable today.”
Schild, who holds the all-time record for most slalom wins with 35, shared third with Hansdotter after the opening run. However, the Austrian fell in her second run, although she got up to complete the course.
The unpredictability of skiing is something Shiffrin already understands.
“Something can always happen,” Shiffrin said of the first-run lead, highlighting her shock victory over Maze at the 2013 World Cup finals when the American came from 1.17 behind.
“I learned that at Lenzerheide last year,” Shiffrin said. “Even 0.9 or a second seems a lot of time but it can go really fast. You always have to fight.”
Shiffrin joined Perrine Pelen of France and Croatia’s Janica Kostelic as the only female skiers to win seven World Cup slaloms before turning 19. She has two chances for a record eighth title before her 19th birthday on March 13 — on February 2 in Maribor, Slovenia, and on March 3 in Are, Sweden.
Shiffrin, who won the world championship and the World Cup title in slalom last year, extended her lead in the discipline standings.
She has now won six of the last 10 slaloms, while Austria’s Marlies Schild and Maze with two victories each are the only other winners.
“I like the hill,” Shiffrin said. “It’s a tough hill, it’s not steep and it’s not flat so sometimes you don’t know how to take it so you just have to go. I learn something from every race.”
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