Industry News
The FIS Alpine World Cup continued on Friday, December 29, 2023, with the women’s Slalom at Lienz, Austria.
Slalom races are held as two runs with the combined time counting. Run 1 is essentially a qualifying run, with only the top 30 qualifying for run 2. Run 2 is held in reverse order, with the 30th-placed skier going first and the first-placed skier going last. The starting order for Run 1 is done by means of a lottery for the top-ranked skiers and the lower-ranked skiers start in order of their FIS ranking. The lottery saw Team USA’s Paula Moltzan in bib 4 and Mikaela Shiffrin in bib 7. Rounding out the team was AJ Hurt in bib 39.
Run 1
Paula Moltzan put down a spectacular first run which saw her finish in second place behind teammate Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin was 1.14 seconds ahead of her teammate and only three other skiers managed to finish less than two seconds behind Shiffrin: Anna Swenn Larsson in third, Michelle Gisin in fourth and Lena Dürr in fifth.
It seemed certain that the podium was going to be between those five ladies, as the sixth-placed skier, Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, was 2.20 seconds behind Shiffrin, but ultimately anything can happen in racing.
Run 2
The Austrian women were strong on their home course in Lienz. Austria’s Katharina Gallhuber who had finished in 22nd place on run 1 had the second fastest second run of the day with 55.98 seconds, catapulting her into the lead. She sat in the winner’s seat in the finish area until her teammate Katharina Huber, who had finished run 1 in 16th, tapped her out. Then Huber sat in the leader’s seat for much of the second run, with competitor after competitor failing to beat her time.
Then top-ranked Petra Vlhova was up, who had finished run 1 in tenth place, a massive 2.41 seconds behind Shiffrin. The Slovakian was in top form on run two and shot past the Austrians, finishing 0.07 seconds ahead of Huber. The crowd was cheering, “Petra, Petra, Petra,” and Petra Vlhova looked relieved to have been able to show what she is made of. Vlhova is after all the second-ranked Slalom skier behind Shiffrin.
Sweden’s Sara Hector had finished run 1 in seventh and had a 0.20-second lead on Vlhova but could not beat the Slovakian skier’s combined time. Also failing to best the Slovakian was sixth-placed Katharina Liensberger, who was strong on the top section, but lost valuable milliseconds on the mid-section.
Then it was down to the final five ladies. Fifth-placed Lena Dürr had 0.75-second lead on Vlhova from run 1. The German has had a strong season so far. and showed aggressive yet near-flawless skiing, and managed to extend the lead on the top section. She managed to maintain the momentum all the way down the course, finishing 0.90 seconds ahead of the Slovak. With four skiers left to ski, however, that meant that she could still miss out on the podium.
Fourth-placed Michelle Gisin had 0.27 seconds lead on the German, but lost time on the top-section of the course, eroding the lead she had on Dürr. She finished 0.11 seconds behind Duerr. Next up was third-placed Anna Swenn Larsson from Sweden who also could not keep the pace the German had set on top of the course and ended up 0.60 seconds behind Dürr and 0.49 seconds behind Gisin. The German was beaming in the finisher’s seat, knowing it was now a guaranteed podium spot for her.
Last to go were the two Americans, Moltzan and Shiffrin. Second-placed Moltzan went down and attacked the course aggressively while keeping the upper body incredibly still. The form the American has shown in Lienz has been formidable. She was looking strong but unfortunately Moltzan got caught in the rutted course towards the end of the race course and skidded on her backside, ending her bid for the podium. Moltzan looked devastated and did not linger in the finisher’s area, skiing out of sight to compose herself.
Meanwhile, Michelle Gisin and Lena Dürr were elated, knowing they were on the podium. With the best skier left to go, all eyes turned to Shiffrin, who had an incredible 1.66-second lead on the German. While it seemed impossible to lose such a sizeable lead, anything was possible and many skiers had struggled on the icy course.
Shiffrin incredibly extended her lead to 1.92 seconds on the top section, then 2.13 seconds, and then 2.23 on the mid-section. The crowd was roaring — what a run the American skier was putting down, she was truly in a league of her own. It had seemed hard if not impossible to extend this lead when skier after skier had failed but Shiffrin weaved down effortlessly, like it was the nursery slopes, finishing a massive 2.34 seconds ahead of Lena Dürr. Shiffrin looked almost in disbelief that she had managed to best everyone and put down the two fastest runs of the day. The cheers in the crowd were huge. What a performance!
”Today was a very special day for me. I don’t know. I felt perfect on the skis. I’m super happy. Somehow it clicked, I guess. The first run and the second run were very different courses, very different flow. My coaches pointed out the really key sections of the course, really easy, precise course report and I was good to go.”
— Mikaela Shiffrin post race
