She remains in a league of her own: Mikaela Shiffrin also wins the World Cup in Flachau and celebrates her sixth win of the season in the slalom. The Hermann Maier piste in Salzburger Land suits her like no other. Since 2013 she has reached the podium at every start there. Teammate Paula Moltzan came in second, Austria’s Katharina Troupe came third.
Unlike her competition, Shiffrin made no mistakes in the first round, quickly found her rhythm and continued exactly where she left off in the second. She reached the finish line with a lead of over four tenths. It is her 107th World Cup victory and 70th in slalom.
The American only had to give up her slalom victory once this season. In Kranjska Gora, the Swiss Camille Rast snatched the victory from her, Shiffrin came second. But it’s just a single blemish on the otherwise successful, pure slalom vest.
Ready for the Olympics
Shiffrin’s performances in the slalom are also a pointer to the Olympic Games. She won gold in Sochi in 2014 and also in Pyeongchang in 2018. She came away empty-handed at the games in Beijing and spoke of a mental low. But now she is in top form ahead of her fourth games.
Aicher and Dürr are eliminated
Emma Aicher also underlined her form about a month before the Olympics. Although she started the first round relatively calmly, she didn’t make any major mistakes and thus put herself in a good starting position for the second round. And at first she did really well, building up a lead of over half a second – but then she gave up. But one thing is also clear: the shape fits.
Things didn’t go as well for Lena Dürr. The 34-year-old couldn’t find any rhythm in the first round and made several mistakes. Frustrated, she arrived at the finish more than two seconds behind and threw her poles into the snow. In the second run she tried much harder, but lost the pace in the middle section, also stopped and fell forward into the snow.