Ski racer Emma Aicher raced onto the podium again at ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin’s next slalom show. Three days after her downhill victory in St. Moritz, the 22-year-old was only beaten by dominator Shiffrin and world champion Camille Rast in the night race in Courchevel, France. Lena Dürr, third after the first run, was eliminated in the final.
On her second podium trip in the slalom after third place in Levi in mid-November, Aicher was 1.71 seconds behind Shiffrin, who also won the fourth slalom run in the Olympic winter.
It was the American’s 105th World Cup victory. The Swiss Rast was 0.16 seconds ahead of Aicher.
“She did that cleverly,” ARD expert Felix Neureuther praised the newcomer and enthused: “I always have to take my hat off to this woman! What she does is crazy!”
Top female drivers have problems
Numerous top athletes had unexpected problems on the “Stade E. Allais” slope. The young Albanian Lara Colturi, who had been on the podium in each of the previous three slaloms this winter, was eliminated in the first run, as was Olympic silver medalist Katharina Liensberger of Austria.
The race also ended early for last year’s winner Zrinka Ljutic (Croatia) and Katharina Gallhuber, the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist from Austria. Wendy Holdener, highly decorated with slalom silver and bronze at the Olympics, was knocked out by a wave at the finish and fell spectacularly. She recovered quickly and finished seventh.