Shiffrin seeks to end slump

The year that has changed Mikaela Shiffrin’s life could get an extraordinary end.

If she doesn’t win Tuesday’s World Cup slalom in Semmering, 2020 would become the first calendar year since her maiden triumph in 2012 without the American standout winning a single race in her strongest discipline.

However, Shiffrin usually does well on the Zauberberg course, winning the floodlit race near the Austrian capital of Vienna the last two times it was held, in 2016 and 2018.

“After nine or 10 years, I have good memories and bad memories at every place. Of course, I’ve had a really good feeling here in the past but it’s a new year and I am in a different position,” Shiffrin said Monday.

“Just because I had a good race last time doesn’t mean I’m going to do well this time. So, it’s still like you have to work every day.”

Working is just what Shiffrin has done since winning a giant slalom in France two weeks ago, her first victory since returning from a 10-month break.

Extensively training her core events of slalom and GS at Reiteralm allowed her to “go into races with a strong feeling.”

Shiffrin posted the fourth-fastest time in the opening run of Monday’s GS in Semmering before the race was called off due to strong winds.

“I am pretty satisfied with my skiing in general,” Shiffrin said after her run.

Shiffrin, the 2014 Olympic gold medalist and fourtime world champion, has won a record 43 slaloms, more than any other male or female skier in the 54year history of the World Cup.

Her last win in the discipline came at another Austrian venue, Lienz, exactly one year ago.

Petra Vlhova, her Slovakian rival, won the first two slaloms of January in Zagreb and Flachau, before Shiffrin’s life was turned upside down by the death of father, Jeff, in early February.