Known for being modest about her achievements, even Mikaela Shiffrin used a superlative Tuesday to describe her dominant win in a women’s World Cup giant slalom.
“Very spectacular,” the Olympic champion said. Shiffrin won the first of two midweek races on the Emile Allais course, building on a big lead from the first run to finish .86 seconds ahead of Sara Hector of Sweden, who posted the fastest second-run time.
“To be able to ski this way today, even with fa-tigue and less energy, is very spectacular,” said Shiffrin, who competed in her 11th event of the season, more than any of her competitors.
“After the last weeks, pushing the schedule hard, it’s been a lot just to get here and we’re just starting this next tech block, so I’m not full tank right now. But I felt like I really skied some of my best skiing and some of my toughest skiing today. That’s just really incredible.”
The American was coming off a surprise ap-pearance at a super-G in nearby Val d’Isère on Sun-day, where she finished fifth.
“Years and years of wanting to go there and we finally did it,” she said about the Val d’Isère race. “And to come here today, there was a big question on my mind if it was the right decision, and if it was going to be too much.”
It certainly wasn’t too much on Tuesday. Shif-frin opened with a near-flawless opening run, and increased her lead over Hector to more than 1.5 seconds before avoiding risks in the final part of her second run.
Michelle Gisin of Switzerland, who was second after the opening run, dropped to third place, 1.08 behind Shiffrin.
Defending overall champion Petra Vlhova, who skipped the last three weekends of speed racing to focus on the technical events, finished fourth.
Shiffrin reclaimed the overall lead from Sofia Goggia, who failed to finish her second run after she lost balance when hitting a bump on the icy surface. Goggia had overtaken Shiffrin at the top of the standings with two wins in nearby Val d’Isère last weekend.
World Cup giant slalom champion Marta Bassino, Goggia’s teammate on the Italian team, failed to finish her first run after she slid off the course into the safety netting half a minute into her run.—AP
