Industry News
Mikaela Shiffrin earned her 65th World Cup win, and her first of 2020, by winning the downhill in Bansko, Bulgaria earlier today.
In only her second career downhill victory, she was .18 of a second ahead of giant slalom rival Federica Brignone of Italy. Swiss Joana Haehlen was third, .23 behind.
“It’s a technical hill, for sure the most technical track on the speed circuit, so I was looking forward to coming here because that maybe suits me a little bit better than some of the other typical speed tracks,” Shiffrin said. “I find that really interesting to learn a new track. It’s like a puzzle or something, It was pretty exciting to put everything together today.”
Shiffrin, racing in Bansko for the first time, had not won her previous five races, all in her more favored disciplines of slalom, giant slalom or the combined. Her fourth-place training run on Thursday showed that her first downhill win since December 2017 was possible, reports NBC.
“I felt a little bit nervous for this race because the last time I was on my downhill skis was in Lake Louise [in early December], so it felt like a really long time ago. I felt a little bit strange on my skis yesterday.”
Shiffrin moves within two victories of recently retired Austrian Marcel Hirscher for fourth place on the career list. Ingemar Stenmark (86 wins) and Lindsey Vonn (82) hold the top two spots.
