Industry News
After 60 days away from competition following a severe abdominal injury sustained at the Stifel Killington Cup in November, Mikaela Shiffrin returned to World Cup racing under the lights in Courchevel, France, on January 30. Though her quest for an elusive 100th World Cup victory will have to wait, the five-time overall champion made a crucial step in her comeback, finishing ninth in a race dominated by Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic.
The 20-year-old Ljutic stamped her authority on the final World Cup Slalom before next week’s FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach, winning by a massive 1.26 seconds. The Croatian, already boasting three victories in her past four World Cup Slaloms, proved once again that she thrives under pressure, leading after the first run and never looking back. She attacked the course with passionate aggression in Run 2, extending her lead of 1.07 seconds on Sara Hector to 1.26 seconds combined.
Shiffrin, on the other hand, approached the race with slightly more caution. After months of rehab, the American superstar admitted she was still regaining her rhythm. “It’s very much a step-by-step process,” she said before the race. “This return to competition is part of the recovery. It doesn’t mean I’m 100%, but it means I’m strong enough to push out of the start gate.”
Shiffrin, who holds a special connection to Courchevel—having won seven of her 99 World Cup races at the venue—delivered a solid first run to place fifth. However, her second run exposed some residual rustiness. A major mistake saw her slip down to ninth, though her skiing still showed her usual smooth style. More importantly, it was a sign that she is on track for the upcoming World Championships.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s Sara Hector, best known for her prowess in Giant Slalom, continued her recent surge in the Slalom discipline. After finishing seventh in the opening run, the reigning Olympic Giant Slalom champion charged to second place—her best-ever World Cup Slalom finish and her second Slalom podium in a row. Germany’s Lena Duerr completed the podium in third, delivering a clutch second run to move up from eighth place.
As the race unfolded, several top contenders struggled with the tricky conditions. Shiffrin was Team USA’s only qualifier for Run 2, with Paula Moltzan, Katie Hensien, Nina O’Brien, and AJ Hurt ending Run 1 with a DNF. Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, second after run one, looked poised for a strong result before skiing out early in the final run. Austria’s Katharina Liensberger settled for fourth, her third consecutive fourth-place finish, while Camille Rast, battling recent illness, climbed to fifth and maintained her lead in the Slalom standings—though Ljutic’s meteoric rise has cut the Swiss skier’s margin to just 41 points.
For Ljutic, this latest triumph underscores her rapid ascent—the 20-year-old won her first-ever World Cup race just last month at Semmering, Austria. She added another victory just a week later in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. “I could not imagine at the beginning of the season I would get all these wins,” she said. “I think the sky is the limit now.”
With the World Championships in Saalbach looming, Ljutic has cemented herself as a gold medal contender. But Shiffrin—already a seven-time world champion—will be force to be reckoned with. While her performance in Courchevel suggested she is still fine-tuning her form, she made it clear that she is focused on peaking at the right time. “It was a very important step in my recovery, to see how I am stacking up with the top skiers in the world,” Shiffrin said post-race. “Hopefully, I get faster in the next two weeks.”
The countdown to Saalbach is on, and the battle for Slalom supremacy is heating up.
