The dominance of Mikaela Shiffrin goes beyond simple winning every slalom of the Olympic season. She’s dominating each race and winning by large margins as well.
An Evening Marked by Record-Extending Skiing
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 added to her first-run lead and finished over one and a half seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 seconds ahead of German racer Emma Aicher.
"Shiffrin has now won the first four slaloms of the season – and five consecutive including the last event of the previous campaign," noted analysts.
Commanding Margins of Victory
All of her margins of victory this season have topped a full second – with a trio over 1.5 seconds: 1.66 in Levi, Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 seconds in Copper Mountain, Colorado before her latest performance in the French Alps.
Challengers Encounter Difficulty
Competitors striving to match 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 encountered a rut, 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, went out 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 moved up from ninth to fifth with the fastest second run of the race.
A Legacy of Accomplishments
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 didn’t medal 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.
