Can Shiffrin get past Vlhova at Flachau World Cup?

Night time snowboarding isn’t a phenomena on the World Cup anymore. Plenty of pistes now have lights for official night time occasions or mentioned illumination is useful on stops on tour situated additional north the place the times are simply brief through the winter.

However that is the Flachau slalom, one of many originals to nighttime racing, within the coronary heart of essentially the most ski-mad nation on the planet, Austria. With apologies to “Animal Farm,” some ski races are simply extra equal than others.

Sure, the annual Florida-Georgia school soccer recreation in Jacksonville, Florida, has been referred to as, “The World’s Largest Outside Cocktail Get together.” In regular non-COVID-19 occasions, Flachau would give Gators and Bulldogs followers a run for his or her cash.

It hurts the mind to assume what number of pictures of schnapps are consumed throughout occasions like these in addition to the boys’s stops in Wengen, Switzerland, this week, and Kitzbuehel, Austria, the subsequent. Whilst a recovering alcoholic of 14 years, your sports activities editor has a swing of Flachau, Wengen and Kitzbuehel on his bucket listing as a result of these aren’t simply sporting occasions, however happenings.

For Mikaela Shiffrin, Flachau begins a crucial two weeks. It’s the primary of 4 tech races, the final ones earlier than the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina, Italy, in 14 days. It’s Flachau (slalom) on Tuesday, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on Saturday and Sunday (big slalom and slalom), adopted by Kronplatz, Italy, (GS) on Jan. 26.

It’s not like Shiffrin has been struggling. In her six World Cup begins this season, she’s completed second, fifth, fourth, first, third and fourth, But on the identical time, it doesn’t appear she’s fairly utterly working at full power, and, in fact, everyone knows why and relate.

Whereas the life circumstances received’t change for Shiffrin, that is the run as much as Cortina, the place, whereas we don’t know if she is going to defend her super-G title, Shiffrin is unquestionably capturing for the highest step in GS and slalom.

Flachau previous and current

There shall be possible as much as 60 racers competing Tuesday, however that is just about a two-person race — Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova and Shiffrin. Now retired, Sweden’s Friday Hansdotter received the Flachau slalom on Jan.10, 2017.

We solely deliver that up as a result of Shiffrin and Vlhova mixed to win the subsequent 28 World Cup slaloms till Dec. 29, 2020, when Michelle Gisin broke up the streak in Semmering, Austria. For the report, Shiffrin was third and Vlhova fourth. Vlhova restarted the streak by profitable the Zagreb, Croatia, slalom on Jan. 3.

Shiffrin owns wins in Flachau in 2013, 2014 and 2018. Hansdotter received in 2015 and 2017 — there was no race in 2016 — and Vlhova has titles from 2019 and 2020.

And since this can be a night time race, American ski race followers don’t should rise up in the midst of the night time. The primary run is at 10 a.m. and the second at 12:45 p.m. mountain time and shall be streamed on Peacock.