Špindleruv Mlýn (Czech Republic) (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin was in a league of her own in the last women’s World Cup slalom before the Winter Olympics on Sunday to lock out a record ninth title in the discipline. This seventh win in the eight slaloms held this season cemented her standing as favourite for a second Olympic slalom gold at next month’s Milan-Cortina Games. And it came with added significance as she became the first man or woman in the history of the alpine skiing World Cup to win more than eight globes in a single event. She had arrived in the Czech Republic level on eight with long-retired Swedish slalom specialist Ingemar Stenmark and US teammate Lindsey Vonn.
With two World Cup slaloms left after the Games, Shiffrin has an unassailable lead over Camille Rast, the Swiss skier who foiled a Shiffrin slalom clean sweep when denying the 30-year-old from Colorado in Slovenia three weeks ago. Shiffrin is ski royalty and she reigned majestically on the Spindleruv Mlyn slope where fittingly she had made her first ever World Cup appearance in 2011.
Related news
“I felt really good on the first run, it was good skiing,” she said. “A little bit of risk, which was exciting. There’s one combination which is tricky visually.” But she revealed the prospect of setting a new record was barely in her thoughts. “Actually no, I don’t have so many words right now, this whole day I was not really thinking about the globe,” she revealed. “I knew coming to this race that it could be possible, but there were so many things to focus on, the hill, the training, going a bit earlier today than yesterday – it was a very early morning.”
Almost a decade and a half after her World Cup debut in the Czech Republic, she is now acclaimed as the greatest skier of all time. Sunday’s win by a mammoth 1.67sec over Rast was her 71st slalom success and a record-extending 108th career World Cup victory.
– Banish Beijing memories –
Shiffrin surged into a 1.26sec lead after the first leg with a near faultless run despite poor visibility in the top half of the course, a performance that triggered huge cheers from the stands. Rast, placed fourth after the first go, topped the times after the second run, but unfortunately for her there was still one skier in the starting gate still to go. And Shiffrin duly nailed it. Racing with more caution early on, she started motoring in the second half to seal the deal with ease. Germany’s Emma Aicher was third at 2.18sec.
For the record, Shiffrin moved on to 780 points in the slalom standings, with slalom world champion Rast 288 points adrift with only 200 points left on the table. Shiffrin also heads the overall World Cup standings by 170 points from Rast in her pursuit of a sixth crystal globe.
Before then though are the small matter of the Olympics, with the giant slalom scheduled for February 15 and the slalom three days later. Despite taking slalom gold at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi days before her 19th birthday and giant slalom gold in Pyeongchang, she is on a quest to erase the memories of 2022 Beijing Games where she failed to medal.
On Saturday, Shiffrin was left celebrating like a winner after finishing third in the giant slalom. The reason? This was her first podium in her once strongest discipline since a serious accident in Killington, Vermont, in November 2024. Of her current slalom supremacy, she said that although it may appear that way, the reality was very different. “It’s wonderful to be consistent and fast, but every time I ski, I feel like I could be flying off the course at any moment,” she said. “So it takes a lot of effort and intensity and focus. It’s always very exciting when I’m in the finish.”
© 2024 AFP
