EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin rebounded from a sub-par first run in Tuesday’s World Cup night slalom in Flachau, Austria, tying for third place and adding another 60 points to her substantial lead over Switzerland’s Lara Gut in the World Cup overall race.
Shiffrin tied with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, 0.78 seconds behind the winner, Frida Hansdotter of Sweden. Shiffrin was 1.38 seconds behind Hansdotter after the first run. Gut, the defending overall champion, failed to finish her first run. Shiffrin now has 1,008 points to Gut’s 643.
Last year when Shiffrin missed five slalom races with a knee injury, Hansdotter won the season slalom title, ending Shiffrin’s three-year run.
“I didn’t ski fast enough. And that’s pretty much it,” Shiffrin told The Associated Press after the first run. “I felt OK. It’s so hard to tell you exactly what happened right after the run because I haven’t had time to think about it … 1.38, it’s easy to lose that kind of time if you ski a couple of turns a little bit tentative. And Frida really attacked.”
Tuesday’s race marked the midway point of the women’s World Cup schedule as it was the 19th of 37 races. Gut figures to make up a lot of ground on Shiffrin over the remaining eight races before the tour breaks for the world championships, Feb. 6-19, because seven of them involve Gut’s best events (downhill, super-G and giant slalom). Shiffrin’s big advantage over Gut is in slalom, but only two slaloms remain in the World Cup season, at Squaw Valley on March 11 and at the World Cup Finals in Aspen on March 18.
Women’s World Cup standings
(after 19 of 37 races)
Mikaela Shiffrin, Eagle/Vail, 1,008 points
Lara Gut, Switzerland, 643
Tessa Worley, France, 563
Sofia Goggia, Italy, 547
Ilka Stuhec, Slovenia, 539
