Slovakian Vlhova wins World Cup overall title
Skier finishes sixth in slalom, but it’s enough for crown
Making history for her nation, Petra Vlhova won the women’s World Cup overall title on Saturday as the first Slovakian to be crowned the best allaround skier.
Vlhova needed only a top-14 finish in her specialist slalom event, and placed a distant sixth in a race that Katharina Liensberger won by 1.24 seconds.
“I won also for my country. It means a lot,” Vlhova said in an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF. “I cannot believe it.”
The race win earned Liensberger the seasonlong discipline title, edging Mikaela Shiffrin who also placed second in Saturday’s race. Michelle Gisin was third, trailing
Liensberger by 1.95.
The result gave the 25-year-old Vlhova an unbeatable lead of more than 100 points in the standings over Lara Gutbehrami. The Swiss racer, who won the overall title in 2016, skips slalom but will compete against Vlhova in the season-ending giant slalom on Sunday.
A first giant crystal globe trophy for Vlhova offset letting her lead slip in the slalom standings. She dropped to third in the season-long slalom standings that she won last year.
“I’m a little disappointed how I was today because I lost the cup in slalom,” she said, though adding that the overall title had been “the main goal this season.”
Liensberger added the discipline title to the gold medal in slalom she won at the world championships last month.
Men’s giant slalom: Rising to the moment on his 30th birthday, French skier Alexis Pinturault
secured his first overall World Cup title. Pinturault won a giant slalom, giving him an unbeatable points lead in the season-long standings over breakout Swiss star Marco Odermatt, who placed 11th on home snow at Lenzerheide. “What a day,” Pinturault said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS. “It was a really beautiful battle with Marco. He will really be a big champion in our sport.” Pinturault is the first men’s overall champion from France in 24 years, since Luc Alphand won. The only other Frenchman to win was Jean Claude-killy, in the first two seasons after the World Cup circuit started in 1967. The giant slalom was key because Odermatt skips slalom, which is the season-ending race on Sunday when Pinturault is also a threat to win. As the first-run leader, Pinturault was the final starter in the second run. He had won the overall title two minutes before he began the run as Odermatt slipped down the leaderboard. Still, Pinturault delivered a winning run to finish 0.20 seconds ahead of Filip Zubcic. Mathieu Faivre, the world championships gold medalist last month, was third, 0.21 back. Odermatt ended 1.28 back. Pinturault also won the giant slalom discipline title.