Flachau (Austria) (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin bounced back under floodlights in Flachau, Austria, on Tuesday when she won the slalom for the sixth time this season, barely a month before the Olympic race in the event. The American had won every slalom since the end of last season until she finished second to Camille Rast in Kranjska Gora on January 4. In Flachau, Shiffrin collected a record-extending 107th World Cup victory as she edged compatriot Paula Moltzan, with Austrian Katharina Truppe third and Swiss skier Rast fourth.
“That was exciting,” Shiffrin said at the finish. Shiffrin was fastest in the first leg with Moltzan second and did enough in the second to slightly extend her lead. Shiffrin finished in a combined time of 1min 50.52sec, 0.41sec ahead of Moltzan with Truppe, at 0.65sec. It was Shiffrin’s sixth victory in seven slaloms this season and her 70th career victory in her favourite event, putting her in excellent form going into the Milan-Cortina Games.
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“It’s been a big push and it’s such a high level I’m skiing,” she said of her hot streak. It was also her sixth career victory at Flachau. The hill, she said, “is always a challenge every time it’s super hard.” Shiffrin moved to 680 points in the discipline, 268 points ahead of Rast with one race in the discipline, in Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic on January 25 before the Olympic Slalom in Bormio on February 18.
After taking Olympic slalom gold in 2014, Shiffrin has failed to medal in the event in either of the last two Olympics. Shiffrin leads Rast by 170 points in the overall standings and faces two giant slaloms — in Kronplatz, Italy, on January 20 and in Spindleruv Mlyn four days later — before the Olympic giant slalom on February 15. Shiffrin won Olympic gold in that event in 2018.
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