Shiffrin second in slalom on 26th birthday

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Crew on Saturday issued the next press launch after Mikaela Shiffrin of Edwards completed second in a World Cup slalom in Are, Sweden:

On her twenty sixth birthday, two-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion Mikaela Shiffrin was second in Saturday’s slalom to guide two Individuals into the highest 5. Paula Moltzan skied to a career-best fifth-place end within the second of two FIS Ski World Cup slalom races in Are, Sweden.

With Saturday’s win, Austria’s 2021 slalom world champion Katharina Liensberger grabbed her maiden World Cup victory, adopted by Shiffrin .72 seconds off the tempo, and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener in third place, 1.65 seconds again. 

Shiffrin got here out of the gate with fireplace on Saturday, snowboarding into first forward of Liensberger by .19 seconds. Slovakian Petra Vlhova, who gained Friday’s slalom had an early error and almost went over the handlebars, shedding a major period of time. Even nonetheless, Vlhova was in a position to make the flip, with twenty seventh place. 2017 NCAA slalom champion (College of Vermont) Paula Moltzan was fifth-fastest within the first run. 

Vlhova held the lead for some time, shifting from twenty seventh to eighth with a strong and error-free second run. Many athletes struggled second run with the sunshine altering drastically, however Moltzan was in a position to cross the end line within the lead by .27 seconds. Her sturdy snowboarding allowed her to carry the fifth place, for her career-best outcome. “I’m actually pleased with the weekend and tremendous excited to have the ability to put 4 clear runs down in a row,” Moltzan shared. “It (consistency) is one thing I’ve been working actually exhausting on all season. The entire crew confirmed plenty of pace on the primary run, and I can promise there are extra nice issues within the close to future for your complete crew.”

Liensberger got here down with a stupendous run, seemingly floating via the gates to take the lead over Holdener by a whopping 1.65 seconds. Shiffrin skied strong however couldn’t sustain with Liensberger, although she was in a position to grasp on to second place. 

“It was a reasonably good weekend,” mirrored Shiffrin. “Yesterday I used to be actually pleased with combating to remain within the race on the second run, and right this moment it was all-around higher snowboarding. The second run was actually powerful. It was exhausting to see and exhausting to see the place the tracks have been…I knew that Liensberger could be pushing actually exhausting as she did the identical factor yesterday and appeared so comfy with that degree of snowboarding. I knew that will be a extremely large battle. I attempted to push and form of sustain with the tempo, and a few spots felt fairly good, so I can take away some good issues from it.  

At simply 26-years-old, Shiffrin has 69 profession World Cup victories, three Olympic medals (two gold), and eleven world championship medals (six gold). Her illustrious profession appears to be one mind-blowing statistic after one other, so right here’s one other so as to add to the gathering: in her final 51 slalom begins, Shiffrin was on the rostrum 47 instances (92%) with 36 victories (71%).

For the second-straight day, Nina O’Brien grabbed twenty second, after making an unbelievable restoration second run for the strong outcome. Katie Hensien, AJ Damage, Lila Lapanja, and Resi Stiegler additionally began for the Individuals. Hensien and Stiegler skied sturdy, however completed simply exterior of the 30, whereas Damage and Lapanja didn’t end.

In what’s changing into fairly the thrilling race for the slalom globe, Shiffrin is now sitting in third with 575 factors, behind Vlhova (612 factors), and Liensberger (590 factors). Together with her eighth place on Saturday, Vlhova has prolonged her lead within the World Cup general standings to 96 factors, with 1,352 factors to Switzerland’s Lara Intestine-Behrami 1,256 factors. 

What can followers anticipate at Finals? “The one factor you may actually anticipate is that Finals might be an thrilling present,” stated Shiffrin. “I do not know the way it’s going to prove. Kathi and Petra are each very sturdy, and right this moment Petra had a extremely large mistake on the primary run, however you may see the second run she was coming again actually sturdy. Something is feasible at Finals, and I’m not completely out of the battle, which after yesterday, is a bit little bit of a shock even, so we’ll see.”  

Up subsequent for the FIS Ski World Cup circuit is World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.  

RESULTS
Women’s slalom

STANDINGS
Overall
Slalom

HOW TO WATCH
All instances EST.

Sunday, March 14
4:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men’s Slalom, run 1 – LIVE, Kranjska Gora, SLO, Streaming Peacock
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men’s Slalom, run 2 – LIVE, Kranjska Gora, SLO, Broadcast Olympic Chanel, Streaming Peacock