Pure emotional chaos: Shiffrin suffers, fears – and triumphs

The women's slalom in Flachau was once again a spectacle. In the end, Mikaela Shiffrin won one of the most emotional victories of her career. But she wasn't the only one who caused a sensation under the floodlights on Tuesday evening.

16 January 2024

By: thomas debelyak

Was she simply no longer able to muster up the energy to cheer wildly? When it was clear at 21.41:94 p.m. on Tuesday evening that Mikaela Shiffrin was this year's slalom queen in Flachau, she lowered her head, held her hands in front of her helmet visor and seemed incredulous. The best skier in history celebrated her XNUMXth World Cup victory in the Austrian cauldron - and it was probably one of her most emotional.

The past few days have been chaotic. A week ago, Shiffrin had to skip the speed weekend in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee with a heavy heart because she was in poor health. Then came Saturday - and the shock of her sweetheart Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who fell badly in Wengen. Shiffrin set off for Bern that same day to be at her friend's bedside. The fact that the 28-year-old is now winning a World Cup race three days later is a testament to the US lady's enormous strength and immense ability.

A duel of giants

A victory in the slalom has a very special significance at the moment, because Shiffrin's challenger is Petra Vlhova. Together they are currently in a league of their own. In Flachau, after the first round, another duel between the two giants became apparent: Vlhova was first, Shiffrin second, separated by only seven hundredths of a second.

Petra Vlhova had to settle for second place. © APA / BARBARA GINDL

While around 13.000 fans cheered on the sides of the piste, the two superstars delivered a memorable finale. Shiffrin didn't drive flawlessly, especially in the upper part, but reached deep into his bag of tricks at the bottom and set a bombastic time. Vlhova showed nerves during her run and repeatedly made small mistakes, which is why she fell back to second place in the final ranking, 2 hundredths behind Shiffrin. Third-placed Sara Hector was already more than a second behind the two “aliens”.

Lara Colturi is the surprise of the day

An Italian driving for Albania also caused a stir on Tuesday: Lara Colturi made it into the top 60 with start number 10 (!) and came ninth. This is the best World Cup result for the 17-year-old super talent, who many experts believe has a great future. For the Azzurre, Martina Peterlini from Trentino achieved the best result in 13th place, while Lucrezia Lorenzi also collected World Cup points in 21st place. The only South Tyrolean in Flachau, Vera Tschurtschenthaler, was eliminated in the first round.