Sun Valley (United States) (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin won her 101st career World Cup race on Thursday, taking the women’s slalom season finale while Zrinka Ljutic captured the discipline’s globe. On the men’s side, it was a big day for Norway as Timon Haugan won the men’s slalom finale and compatriot Henrik Kristoffersen took home the season globe for the event.
Shiffrin, a four-time world champion and 2014 Olympic champion in slalom, captured her 64th career World Cup slalom triumph. She took her 100th overall career World Cup victory in a slalom event last month at Sestriere, Italy. “It was tough conditions,” Shiffrin said. “There were big tracks and a little bit wild rides sometimes, but I felt connected with the snow. My skis felt perfect and I could keep moving down the hill. It felt quite good to ski.”
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The 30-year-old American had a two-run combined time of 1min 45.92sec with Germany’s Lena Duerr second in 1:47.05 and Slovenian Andreja Slokar rounding out the podium 0.01sec slower. Croatia’s Ljutic captured her first globe with a 10th-place finish in 1:48.60. That was good enough for her first globe by 32 points over Austrian Katharina Liensberger, who was fifth in 1:47.86.
On the final run of the last race of the season in the men’s competition, Norwegian Haugan completed a combined time of 1min 43.61secs to edge France’s Clement Noel by 0.03 of a second, with Austrian Fabio Gstrein third in 1:43.98. Kristoffersen took fourth in 1:44.03 and captured the season points chase 662-610 ahead of Swiss Loic Meillard, the reigning world champion who was fifth in 1:44.26, with Haugan on 609 and Noel on 606.
Shiffrin, who missed two months of the season after an abdominal injury in November, was too far back to win the slalom title for the ninth time in her career after taking the 2023 and 2024 globes. “It has been quite up and down but I realized at 30 I’m still learning things every season,” she said. “There are new and exciting adventures around the corner and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.” She was thrilled at her fourth win of the season.
“It just boils down to the final moment I’m in the start gate and it’s just me,” Shiffrin said. “Thinking about strong things. I have a lot of doubt in the day but in that moment, it’s like just focus on the technical things as my cues and high intensity. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m happy it worked today.”
Ljutic, the standings leader, was vulnerable but Switzerland’s Camille Rast, second in the points chase at 41 behind, had a combined time of 1:48.83, unable to overtake Ljutic and finishing 14th. Liensberger, who began the day 51 points back in third, completed the second run just behind Ljutic.
Haugan, 28, took his fourth career World Cup race victory, all in slalom, and his third win of the season after Alta Badia, Italy, and Schladming, Austria. Noel and Meillard had chances into the last run but Kristoffersen knew he had clinched the globe after his second run, roaring with joy and then lying down and crying in the snow. “I made too many mistakes today. There was a lot of pressure,” he told the International Ski Federation. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to withstand this kind of pressure. It’s getting harder and harder.”
© 2024 AFP
