The dominance of Mikaela Shiffrin goes beyond simple winning each slalom of the Winter Games season. She is commanding each race and securing victories by significant gaps as well.
A Night of Record-Extending Performance
The American skiing standout claimed a record-extending 105th World Cup victory after a number of her primary challengers went out during the opening run of a night race on Tuesday.
Shiffrin built upon her first-run lead and ended up over one and a half seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 ahead of competitor from Germany Emma Aicher.
"She has currently secured the opening four slaloms of the season – and five straight including the last event of the previous campaign," noted analysts.
Overwhelming Leads of Victory
All of her winning leads this season have topped a full second – with three of them over 1.5 seconds: 1.66 in Levi, Finland; 1.23 seconds in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 in Copper Mountain, Colorado before her latest performance in the French Alps.
Rivals Face Difficulty
Rivals scrambling to catch Shiffrin encountered trouble.
- Lena Duerr, the German skier who was third after the first run, skied off the track early in her second trip down.
- Lara Colturi, the born in Italy skier who races for Albania, missed a gate toward the end of her initial run – ending a streak of three consecutive slalom podiums.
- Wendy Holdener managed a seventh-place finish even with a mishap at the end of her first run where she hit a hole, was flipped into the air, and landed on her back.
Defending World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Ljutic and Olympic silver medalist Katharina Liensberger, the next two starters, were disqualified midway down the course.
This marks the third straight slalom that Ljutic has failed to finish.
Race Results
Katharina Truppe of Austria finished fourth and American skier Paula Moltzan climbed from ninth to fifth with the quickest second run of the race.
A Legacy of Achievements
This win represented Shiffrin's 68th World Cup slalom victory. Her Olympic accolades include the slalom gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the giant slalom gold four years later at the Pyeongchang Games. She did not reach the podium at the 2022 Beijing Games.
The upcoming winter Olympics' women’s Alpine skiing events will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – a venue where Shiffrin secured four medals in her four events at the 2021 world championships.
