Courchevel (France) (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin continued her ascendancy over the women’s slalom in Courchevel on Tuesday night as she swept to a fifth straight victory in the discipline and 105th World Cup win. At the finish after her record-extending World Cup win, Shiffrin said she was not sure why things were going so well. “I’m just pushing. Not asking questions,” she said, adding she wanted to “lock in this feeling”.
Under floodlights, the American, who won the last race last season and has won every slalom this season, compiled a combined time of 1 minute 42.50 seconds, a colossal 1.55sec ahead of Camille Rast of Switzerland with German Emma Aicher narrowly third. It was the 22-year-old German’s third podium of the season and her second in three days after she showed her versatility by winning a downhill in St Moritz on Sunday.
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Albanian Lara Colturi, who had been on the podium behind Shiffrin in every previous slalom this season, skied out on the first run, one of a series of high-profile casualties on a bumpy tricky course. Croatian Zrinka Ljutic, the reigning slalom champion, and Austrian Katharina Liensberger did not finish the first run. Sara Hector and Lena Duerr were among half a dozen skiers who failed to complete the second.
Shiffrin was 0.83sec faster than Rast in the first run, the sixth times in seven runs this season that the American has been fastest in a slalom run. In the second run, Shiffrin was only fifth fastest but even without finding fluency was able to pad her lead on deteriorating snow after Rast, skiing second last, made mistakes. “Sometimes you’ve got to take it and roll with it,” said Shiffrin. “I was pushing like hell. It’s a wonder I made it to the finish this time. Just fight!”
Shiffrin moved to a perfect 400 points in the slalom standings. Colturi remained second, 180 points behind. In the overall standings, Shiffrin moved to 558 points, 164 ahead of New Zealander Alice Robinson. Rast climbed to third, 215 points off the lead. It was the 30-year-old Shiffrin’s first slalom win in the French Alpine resort of Courchevel since 2018. “That’s kind of crazy,” Shiffrin said. “Courchevel has been there my entire career for highs and lows so I appreciate this so much.”
© 2024 AFP
