American star Shiffrin Expands All-time best with 105th World Cup Giant Slalom Triumph.
Mikaela Shiffrin isn't just winning each slalom of the Olympic season. She’s dominating each race and finishing with considerable leads as well.
A Night of History-Making Performance
The Alpine star from the United States earned a record-extending 105th World Cup victory after several of her top challengers went out during the opening run of a evening event on Tuesday.
Shiffrin added to her first-run lead and finished over one and a half seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 ahead of competitor from Germany Emma Aicher.
"The skier has triumphed in the opening four slaloms of the season – and five consecutive including the final race of the previous campaign," noted analysts.
Overwhelming Margins of Victory
All of her winning leads this season have exceeded a full second – with a trio more than 1.5 seconds: a 1.66-second lead in Levi, Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 in Copper Mountain, Colorado before her latest performance in the French Alps.
Challengers Face Difficulty
Competitors striving to match Shiffrin ran into difficulty.
- 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 Italian-born skier who represents Albania, missed a gate toward the end of her opening run – halting a streak of three straight slalom podiums.
- Wendy Holdener achieved a seventh-place finish despite a incident at the end of her first run where she hit a hole, was launched into the air, and landed on her back.
Reigning 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 consecutive slalom that Ljutic has failed to finish.
Race Results
Katharina Truppe of Austria placed fourth and American skier Paula Moltzan climbed from ninth to fifth with the fastest second run of the race.
A Legacy of Accomplishments
This win represented Shiffrin's sixty-eighth World Cup slalom victory. Her Games accolades include the slalom gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and gold in giant slalom 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 won four medals in her four events at the 2021 world championships.