Struggling with edge grip on skis that didn’t perform the way she expected, EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin finished fifth Tuesday in a World Cup giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy, that saw a slight tightening in her duel with Switzerland’s Lara Gut in the World Cup overall standings.
Shiffrin finished just behind Gut, her closest pursuer in the overall standings. Gut earned 50 points for fourth place in the standings, Shiffrin 45.
Shiffrin was ninth fastest in the first run, 1.43 seconds behind pacesetter Federica Brignone of Italy, who went on to win the race. Shiffrin’s two-run total was 1.09 seconds behind Brignone.
“The second one was definitely better than the first but I had a big struggle with my grip today,” Shiffrin said in an audio interview furnished by the U.S. Ski Team. “It was really, really bizarre because I’ve never had that kind of feeling where I wasn’t confident standing on my edges. We used the same set-up and the same tuning that really works on this kind of snow, and for some reason today it was really, really off from the first gate. Second run was a bit better, a bit more trusting, but still a bit of a struggle so I’m happy with fifth place for sure.”
Shiffrin plans to skip Saturday’s downhill at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, but will race Sunday’s super-G there and a “city event” on a man-made ski slope in Stockholm next Tuesday before heading to the biennial world championships, Feb. 6-19 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Gut figures to close the gap significantly this weekend because she is strong in downhill and super-G.
The coming weekend could be a good one for Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, who has 77 World Cup victories, nine behind Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record. Eleven of Vonn’s wins have come at Cortina, and she swept both races there the past two seasons.
World Cup overall standings
(after 23 of 37 races)
Mikaela Shiffrin, EagleVail, 1,053 points
Lara Gut, Switzerland, 923
Tessa Worley, France, 688
Sofia Goggia, Italy, 629
Ilka Stuhec, Slovenia, 625
