Mikaela Shiffrin (center) celebrates her 3.07-second World Cup slalom victory Saturday in Aspen. In the purple jacket, front row left, is former ski great Tamara McKinney (John Meyer/Denver Post).
Aspen — Mikaela Shiffrin’s stunning victory margin of 3.07 seconds in Saturday’s World Cup slalom here was the largest margin in a women’s slalom in the history of the World Cup. But in a sport where races usually are determined by fractions of a second, just how big is three seconds?
Let’s take a look at her most recent slalom victory before Saturday, a race in France last March.
That day, 23 racers were less than three seconds behind her. The same two women were on the podium with her that day and on Saturday. They were 0.05 behind (Frida Handsdotter) and 0.40 (Veronika Zuzulova). On Saturday, Zuzulova was 3.07 behind, Hansdotter was 3.26 behind, and only one other racer was less than five seconds behind. Six racers were within a second of her in the race last March.
