EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffin is doing her best to take the suspense out of next week’s World Cup finals in Aspen, at least where the women’s overall title is concerned.
Shiffrin won a giant slalom Friday in Squaw Valley, Calif., her ninth World Cup victory this season and third in GS. Her closest competitor in the World Cup overall chase, Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia, crashed and failed to finish the race.
Shiffrin now has a lead of 278 points over Stuhec and 366 over third-place Sofia Goggia of Italy. Shiffrin will race a slalom in Squaw Valley on Saturday before traveling to Colorado for the World Cup Finals.
Squaw Valley had not hosted the World Cup since 1969, but U.S. racers had an edge because they have competed in U.S. nationals there.
“I skied this hill before, and I’m really lucky, a lot of the girls I’m competing against had not,” Shiffrin said. “I just knew that no matter what hill I’m skiing on, I have to attack like crazy. All these girls are going for wins, and I’m so happy with how that went today.”
Shiffrin had the fastest first run and widened her lead in the second run before a couple of bobbles on the bottom of the course narrowed her margin. Federica Brignone of Italy was second, 0.07 of a second behind, and Tessa Worley of France was third, 0.86 behind.
Stuhec will not race Saturday’s slalom. If Shiffrin wins — she has won five of seven World Cup slaloms this year, plus the slalom at world championships — she would have a seemingly insurmountable 378-point lead over Stuhec.
“I’m really excited to have 100 points after this race,” Shiffrin said. “Going into tomorrow, now I have to focus. It’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush and I need to calm down, refocus. I can’t wait to go to Aspen. Even having a 270-something-point lead, that’s big, but at the same time I don’t feel like I’ve done anything yet. I try not to take anything for granted.”
World Cup overall standings (with five races remaining):
Mikaela Shiffrin, EagleVail, 1,423 points
Ilka Stuhec, Slovenia, 1,145
Sofia Goggia, Italy, 1,057
Lara Gut, Switzerland, 1,023
Tessa Worley, France, 736
