Mikaela Shiffrin holds on for World Cup victory No. 95 in Jasna, Slovakia
The Edwards skier's lead shrunk to 0.02 seconds going into the slalom's final sector
Giovanni Maria Pizzato/AP
VAIL — With her chief rival, Petra Vlhova, out for the year after suffering a knee injury on her home snow in Saturday’s giant slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin’s path to World Cup win No. 95 seemed already set in stone.
But the American needed to pull out some last-sector slalom heroics to hold off Croatian youngster Zrinka Ljutic and take the win on Sunday in Jasna, Slovakia.
“It was not easy on the second run,” Shiffrin told FIS media. “I could hear the crowd going crazy for a couple of athletes and I’m like, ‘No, this race is very far away from over and I need to push.'”
Shiffrin had a 1.35-second advantage over the next competitor in run No. 1 until Ljutic, skiing from bib 17, rocketed down the 68-gate Lukova 2 slope just 0.52 seconds behind the seven-time slalom crystal globe winner.
“I knew she (Ljutic) put down an amazing run and I had to push,” Shiffrin said of the 2022 slalom world junior champion. Shiffrin’s lead shrunk to just 0.02 seconds on the penultimate split of run No. 2, but the Edwards’ skier found her groove and posted the fastest final sector of the field to ensure a 0.14-second win.
“I didn’t feel perfect but I felt good, so I’m super happy with it,” said Shiffrin, who passed Ingemar Stenmark for the most World Cup slalom podiums (82). It was her 150th World Cup podium across all events, which is just five short of Stenmark’s record in that category.
Anna Swenn Larsson used the second-fastest second run to move up from fifth to third — 0.81 seconds from Shiffrin’s standard — bumping Camille Rast off of what would have been her first individual World Cup podium. It was the 31-year-old Swede’s third top-five finish in the past four slaloms.
“I struggled a lot this season, especially the first races,” said Swenn Larsson, whose best result in the first four events was just 15th. “I had some problems with my body and now everything just feels really well — mind and body. I’m feeling really strong again.”
Ljutic, who has two podiums on her resume — she was third in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, last January in addition to her runner-up Sunday — was pleased to have “skied even better in the second run than the first.”
“I’m proud of myself for managing this pressure in the second run,” she told FIS media. “I think I took a glimpse of what it’s like to be so close to the win. It was really tight and it’s definitely worth it, it’s worth every DNF (four) that I’ve had this season.”
Paula Moltzan finished in 18th for the U.S. and Lila Lapanja was 27th. A.J. Hurt had the 16th-best first run but failed to finish her second.
With Vlhova sidelined, Shiffrin can clinch her eighth slalom World Cup season title in the next event in Soldeu, Andorra, on Feb. 11. She currently leads the third-ranked skier, Lena Duerr, by 228 points with just three events left. Duerr, who finished seventh on Sunday, is the last athlete other than Shiffrin or Vlhova to win a World Cup slalom in the past 15 events.
“I have been thinking about (Vlhova) a lot the last 24 hours,” Shiffrin said. “For me, personally, over these years I have grown to love the battles with her. I think today she would have been so strong. So, I really miss watching her ski today and having that battle.”
Shiffrin will head to Cortina d’Ampezzo for speed races next week. A pair of downhills are set for Jan. 26 and 27, followed by a super-G on Jan. 28.
“It’s not really rest,” she said. “But a different pace, so I’m looking forward to it.”
This story is from VailDaily.com.
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