Shiffrin wins in return to wrap up World Cup slalom title
All Mikaela Shiffrin has been really looking for in her first race back after a six-week injury layoff was “good skiing.”
What she got, though, was even by the American star’s standards “an insane way to return.”
Shiffrin made a triumphant comeback to the World Cup Sunday, dominating the season’s penultimate slalom for career win 96 and locking up her record-equaling eighth season title in the discipline.
Racing for the first time since hurting her left knee in a downhill crash in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion posted the fastest times in both runs to beat Croatian prodigy Zrinka Ljutic by a massive 1.24 seconds.
Shiffrin had been out since she sprained the MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her knee in January, while also still recovering from a bone bruise.
The season title is Shiffrin’s eighth in slalom, making her the fourth skier to win eight crystal globes – the traditional prize in Alpine skiing – in a single classification.
Former American teammate Lindsey Vonn achieved the feat in downhill. On the men’s side, Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher won eight overall championships, and Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark reached that number of titles in both slalom and GS.
The slalom makes up half of the American’s collection of 16 career globes, alongside her five overall championships, one super-g and two GS titles.
The slalom title will be Shiffrin’s only globe this season. She skipped Saturday’s giant slalom on the same hill and won’t compete in the speed events of the finals, leaving her without enough races to close the 345-point gap on leader Lara Gutbehrami.