Shi≠rin stays on slalom roll

sestriere, italy» Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin remains unbeatable in slalom.

Sunday, the alpine star from EagleVail won the 11th consecutive World Cup race she has entered in the discipline, adding to a slim firstrun lead with a dominating performance on her second trip down an icy course.

Shiffrin finished with a massive 1.09-second advantage over Veronika Velez Zuzulova of Slovakia, with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland placing third, 1.21 seconds back.

“I pushed and it felt really good,” Shiffrin said. “The first run I felt tight and the second run I tried to let it fly, and that’s such a good feeling.”

Shiffrin, 21, missed two months last season after suffering a torn ligament in her right knee during a training fall in Sweden. She has won six consecutive slalom competitions since her return.

Shiffrin increased her lead over defending champion Lara Gut in the overall standings to 105 points. Gut, who rarely races slalom, finished 28th on Sunday.

It was the 23rd win of Shiffrin’s World Cup career, with 22 coming in slalom and one in giant slalom.

As she seeks her first overall title, she is branching out into the speed disciplines of downhill and super-G this season. The multievent approach has meant that she has had less time to dedicate to slalom, and it showed with an uncharacteristic mistake on her first run Sunday.

On the upper section of the hard and icy Giovanni Agnelli course, Shiffrin briefly lost control and had to spread her skis apart to regain her balance.

On her second trip down, Shiffrin was cautious on the top but then gained huge chunks of time on her challengers the rest of the way down — as she usually does.

Upon completing her race, Shiffrin let out an adrenaline-filled fist pump.

“I tried to have some fun in the second run,” Shiffrin said. “I’m trying to entertain myself.”

Shiffrin also led the first run of Saturday’s giant slalom but finished sixth.

The women’s World Cup circuit had not stopped in Sestriere since 2008. Sestriere hosted alpine ski races during the 2006 Turin Olympics.

The women travel to Val d’Isere, France, for alpine combined, downhill and super-G races next weekend.

Kristoffersen cruises

B val d’isere, france» Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway won a World Cup slalom as first-run leader Alexis Pinturault straddled a gate on his second trip down.

Showing off both his power and flexibilty on the steep and icy Face de Bellevarde, Kristoffersen finished with a large gap of 0.75 seconds ahead of fivetime defending overall champion Marcel Hirscher.

Alexander Khoroshilov of Russia placed third, nearly two seconds back.

Hirscher increased his overall lead to 156 points.