Åre (Sweden) (AFP) – American skier Mikaela Shiffrin returned from a six-week injury lay-off to win the women’s slalom in Are on Sunday and claim the discipline title for the eighth time.
Shiffrin, who turns 29 next week, is out of the running for the overall title but her 96th World Cup win brought some consolation as she pulled out a stunning second run to finish 1.24 seconds ahead of 20-year-old Croat Zrinka Ljutic with the Swiss Michelle Gisin in third. “I am proud of myself,” said Shiffrin. “The second run was some of my best skiing.”
The German Lena Duerr was the only woman who could mathematically overhaul her in the slalom standings, as second-placed Petra Vljova has already called time on her season because of injury, but she could only manage fourth.
Shiffrin has been out of action since a heavy crash at the end of January on the Olympia delle Tofane course in the Italian ski resort of Cortina, host to the 2026 Winter Olympics. But the American produced a fluid opening run of 49.94 seconds which was a mere 0.02sec ahead of Gisin.
Last out on the second run, Shiffrin pulled out all the stops, betraying the fact she only made her first “race intensity” outing since her crash last week. “First run I felt I was pushing hard but not keeping up with the pace. This (second) run I wouldn’t change a thing,” said the most successful World Cup skier of all time.
With one race to go, Shiffrin tops the discipline standings with 730 points, 225 ahead of Vlhova who is still 13 points clear of Duerr.
On Friday, Shiffrin conceded that she could no longer win the overall title and she is now 345 points behind the leader Lara Gut-Behrami who did not race the slalom on Sunday.
© 2024 AFP
