Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's parallel slalom on Dec. 20, 2017 in Courchevel, France.
Mikaela Shiffrin is once again on a run for the ages.
The 22-year-old Shiffrin continued her domination this season by winning the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women’s slalom on Friday in Lienz, Austria, her second slalom win this season and 27th slalom win of her career.
Shiffrin, who has already qualified for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 in giant slalom and now secured her start in slalom, won her third straight race to claim the 36th world cup victory of her career.
Shiffrin, the reigning world and Olympic champion in slalom, had never won in Lienz before. She sped through the first run in 51.03 seconds, a blazing 1.14 seconds faster than first run second-place finisher Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, and 1.28 faster than Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener.
Shiffrin then skied wisely over deteriorating conditions on the final run to take the victory for her 52nd career podium.
Even with an 11th-place finish on the second run, her combined time of 1:43.87 was 0.89 better than Holdener’s 1:44.76. Hansdotter took third in 1:45.09.
Shiffrin’s win total continues to mount heading toward PyeongChang. Last season’s overall world cup champion, she already has five world cup wins this season, including another in slalom on Nov. 26 in Killington, Vermont. In addition, she also won downhill on Dec. 2 at Lake Louise, Alberta, giant slalom on Dec. 19 at Courchevel, France, and parallel slalom — a non-Olympic event — on Dec. 20 in Courchevel.
Shiffrin, from Eagle-Vail, Colorado, leads the current world cup standings in overall, in downhill, slalom and giant slalom.
Gary R. Blockus is a journalist from Allentown, Pennsylvania who has covered multiple Olympic Games. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
