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After a 44-day hiatus due to injury, U.S. ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the World Cup circuit and took a smashing victory in the Slalom at Åre, Sweden. The American ski racer won the Slalom race by 1.24 seconds ahead of Croatia’s Zrinka Ljucic, and 1.34 seconds ahead of Michelle Gisin from Switzerland.
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Shiffrin had been out of action for six weeks following an injury at the Downhill race in Cortina d’Ampezzo Italy. The American skier had overstretched her ligaments in her knee but had luckily not torn them. After lengthy rehab, the athlete returned to competitive ski racing today on one of her favorite courses.
Åre holds a special place in Shiffrin’s heart and has been the location of many previous milestones: she won her first-ever World Cup race aged 17, and she surpassed Ingemar Stenmark with 87 World Cup victories last year on the Swedish Slalom course.
Shiffrin had gone into the lead on run 1 of the Slalom race, a mere 0.02 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin and 0.11 seconds ahead of 19-year-old Zrinka Ljutic. Germany’s Lena Dürr was in fourth, 0.24 seconds behind Shiffrin, and Austria’s Katharina Huber and Katharina Gallhuber were in fifth and sixth, 0.69 and 0.78 seconds behind Shiffrin. Team USA’s Paula Moltzan was seventh, 0.95 seconds off the leading time and Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson and Katharina Liensberger from Austria were in equal eighth 0.96 seconds behind.
It was a close field after run 1 with nine skiers less than a second apart and the victory was anyone’s game. Run 2 is conducted in reverse order, meaning the fastest skiers go last. It was Anna Swenn Larsson who shot into the lead from eighth place on home turf, much to the joy of the home crowd, especially after teammates Elsa Fermbaeck and Hanna Elfman Aronson had finished run 2 with a DNF after sliding out and missing gates. Austrians Huber and Gallhuber could not match the pace of the Swede, but Lena Dürr managed to snatch the lead, 0.01 seconds ahead of Swenn Larsson. The German was relieved to have put down two great runs on a course that was seemingly tripping up many good skiers as it was becoming skied out as the day went on. Zrinka Ljucic was next and snatched the lead from Dürr by 0.11 seconds — not a huge margin. Gisin was next but the Swiss could not beat the young Croatian skier but managed to beat Dürr by 0.01 seconds.
The performances were all incredibly close but then Shiffrin shot on the course in Åre and demonstrated just why the 28-year-old is regarded the GOAT. The American took her narrow lead from run 1 and extended it on every section of the course. The cheer of the crowd was growing louder as Shiffrin weaved flawlessly down the race course, finishing with a lead of 1.24 seconds on Ljucic. The smile could not be wiped off on Shiffrin’s face and she admitted in an interview after the race, “There was nothing I would change about the second run.” It was indeed flawless.
Shiffrin’s teammate Moltzan could not quite match the aggression of her first run, finishing in what was ultimately 10th place.
Today’s victory marked Shiffrin’s 59th Slalom victory and 96th World Cup victory. With today’s victory, the American skier won the season’s Slalom Crystal Globe for the skier with the most points during the season. It is Shiffrin’s eighth Slalom Crystal Globe and her 16th Crystal Globe in total. Only Lindsey Vonn and Ingemar Stenmark have managed to claim eight Small Crystal Globes in one discipline before her, Vonn in Downhill, and Stenmark in both Giant Slalom and Slalom.
The World Cup series culminates with the World Cup Finals in Saalbach, Austria, next week and the week after.
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