Shiffrin set to start first in comeback ski race
LEVI, FINLAND — Ending her 10month break from racing, Mikaela Shiffrin is set to go first in the World Cup slalom today, while the Sweden team has gone into quarantine and will miss both races this weekend.
According to the official start list released by FIS on Friday, Shiffrin was given No. 1 during the bib draw for the slalom season opener.
Another women’s slalom on the Black Levi course is scheduled for Sunday.
Shiffrin, a double Olympic and three-time overall World Cup champion, hasn’t raced since January.
The American’s season was cut short in February as she took a five-week break from racing following the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, when the remainder of the season was cancelled amid the coronavirus outbreak.
A notable absentee from this weekend’s races is Swedish slalom specialist Anna Swenn Larsson, who finished in the top five of the discipline standings in the past two seasons.
Sweden quarantined after one of its coaches tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Levi, though other coaches and all eight skiers on the team tested negative.
Larsson wrote on her Instagram account she was “sad” about missing the first two of a total of nine slaloms scheduled this season. “In the last 6 days I have done 4 tests and all of them have been negative. The last one I took today. I will still not be on the start tomorrow,” she wrote.