EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin was embracing the positives after settling for a bronze medal in giant slalom Thursday at the world alpine championships in a race won by her chief rival in slalom, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia.
Shiffrin, the reigning Olympic champion in GS and silver medalist in GS at the last world championships two years ago, skied too tentatively in the first run and went into the second run 0.44 seconds behind pacesetter Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany.
Shiffrin, who leads the World Cup GS standings this season with three wins in six races charged on Thursday’s second run to move into the medals while Vlhova jumped ahead of Rebensburg to claim the first world championships gold of her career. Shiffrin’s combined time was 0.38 seconds slower than Vlhova’s.
“I’m really happy,” Shiffrin told NBCSN after the medals were decided. “I know itap not gold, but after the first run, I was like, ‘Aw, thatap not enough,’ and I was kind of mad at myself. I was really trying to fight the second run. I had a little bit of a bobble, but you have to ski aggressive, and if you make a mistake, fight for it. I’m still feeling a little bit lucky but super happy to walk away with a medal tonight.”
It was Shiffrin’s sixth medal in world championships races since 2013. She has won three straight world championships slaloms and took her first medal in a speed event last week, claiming gold in the super-G.
Thursday’s result sets up an intriguing showdown in Saturday’s slalom, the final event of these world championships for the women. Shiffrin has ruled slalom since 2013, although she did fail to medal at the Winter Olympics a year ago. She has won six of the seven World Cup slaloms this season, finishing second to Vlhova in the other.
If Shiffrin wins her fourth straight world championships slalom gold Saturday, she will break the record for most consecutive wins in a discipline at world championships. It also would be her fifth world championships gold, which would tie the American record held by Ted Ligety.
“Everybody is charging, and Petra has been a big competitor of mine all season long, so I know that it is full gas,” Shiffrin told NBCSN. “In slalom, I tend to feel more confident in all variable types of conditions than I currently do in GS, but itap still a matter of who pushes as hard as they can and does the best skiing and fewest mistakes. So we’ll see what happens, but I’m looking forward to it.”
NBCSN will telecast Saturday’s race at 5 a.m., and it will be replayed by NBC on Channel 9 at 11 a.m.
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