LEVI, Finland — Tina Maze of Slovenia won the women’s World Cup slalom opener Saturday with an overall time of 1 minute, 55.15 seconds, while defending Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finished 11th and said she had “lessons to learn.” Maze, who was fastest in the first run, beat Swede Frida Hansdotter by 0.34 seconds after a second run in light snow as the Arctic sky darkened.
Austria’s Kathrin Zettel had the day’s fastest one-run time of 56.70 and was third, ahead of Sweden’s Maria Pietilae-Holmner.
Shiffrin, 14th after the first run, improved slightly in the second to finish 11th overall. The 19-year-old from EagleVail had times of 59.83 and 57.39 for a 1:57.22 total, more than two seconds behind Maze.
Maze, double Sochi Olympic champion in downhill and the giant slalom, wasn’t certain of winning Saturday.
“I wasn’t sure, because I had made so many mistakes, not big mistakes, but I didn’t know where I would end up,” Maze said. “But I’m like that sometimes. When I’m feeling good, I can ski well and get ahead.”
Shiffrin leads the World Cup overall standings with 124 points, ahead of Zettel with 110. Maze is third with 109.
Shiffrin was keen to analyze her performance.
“It’s easy to win when you’re winning. I still need to learn how to come back in the second run if I have a slower first run,” Shiffrin said. “I still need to learn how to race like a champion. I wasn’t able to do that today.”
Known as one of the toughest slalom slopes on the circuit, Levi had a hard, gritty base after days of cold temperatures.
“The base is not icy, but it’s quite aggressive, making it hard to let your skis go,” Hansdotter said.
