Mikaela Shiffrin's ‘Special' 101st World Cup Win Comes On U.S. Soil
There are plenty of bold fashion choices to be found in the crowd at an Alpine World Cup finals, and this year in Sun Valley was no different. But why Dalmations?
The girls' clever costume was a nod to the major moment they were hoping to witness: Mikaela Shiffrin's 101st World Cup win.
Thursday's World Cup finals slalom race was Shiffrin's first on home snow since capturing her historic 100th win in Sestriere, Italy, in February. It also marked her first U.S. race since her November giant slalom crash in Killington, where she suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen that required surgery and sidelined her for two months.
Though a ninth (and third consecutive) slalom Crystal Globe wasn't on the line for Shiffrin Thursday, as she mathematically could not catch Croatia's Zrinka Ljutić in the standings, a victory was. Shiffrin landed on the top of the podium in three of her five Slalom races this season; if she is skiing her best, she's the favorite to win.
Shiffrin and her team had identified a crucial number of World Cup points the 30-year-old would ideally earn in Sun Valley, which will help her starting position for next season. Securing those points would be the 'goal on paper,' Shiffrin told me before her race.
'But then my biggest goal, the emotional side of it, is I just want to be able to ski some of my best turns on home soil,' Shiffrin added. 'I know where I stand; I know that my very best skiing in slalom is fast, but anything aside from my best, then it's anybody's race.'
Having drawn No. 2 at the bib draw on Wednesday evening at Sun Valley Lodge—an event in and of itself, ending in a fireworks display—Shiffrin, going second among 24 skiers, had the opportunity to set the tone early in the race. And she did, with a time (52.05) that ultimately none of the women was able to best.
That meant Shiffrin would be the last in the start order for the second runs—and would thus know exactly what she had to do to walk away with a win.
And what she did was win (1:45:92) by more than a full second (1.13), with Germany's Lena Duerr and Slovenia's Andreja Slokar rounding out the podium. Ljutić, who finished 10th in Thursday's race but did, in fact, capture the slalom Crystal Globe for the season, called Shiffrin's skiing 'out of this world.'
Thursday's win didn't come easy; the race, in low light and soft, choppy snow conditions, was 'awe-inspiring' and 'hard fought,' Shiffrin said.
And that comes after a season marked by adversity, one in which Shiffrin sometimes wondered if she should even be in the sport. She was diagnosed with PTSD following her crash, which caused her to miss four of 10 slalom events this season. But ending the season with a slalom win (her fourth in six starts) gives her the energy she needs to prepare for next season.
There's just something different about winning on home soil. Shiffrin, who grew up in Colorado and describes attending World Cup races at Beaver Creek as a child among her 'formative memories,' treasured the opportunity to end her season in Sun Valley, which is hosting its first World Cup finals since 1977. (The last U.S. World Cup finals was in Aspen in 2017.)
Sometimes, Shiffrin said, by the end of a grueling race season spanning the globe, skiers are 'just trying to get through' a World Cup finals. But this one felt different; charged.
'I have felt so much support from U.S. fans, and being able to return back home for the final races of the season is super exciting,' Shiffrin said. 'It's just cool to be here and share this atmosphere with the U.S. fans and so many young racers in this area who are so excited to be here.'
Shiffrin's 100th win may not have come on home soil, but earning her 101st at home, at the World Cup finals no less, is 'pretty special,' she said.
The cheers from the crowd were deafening, and she thought of the kids (she did, by the way, see the Dalmation puppies, on the Jumbotron on her first run) whose ski racing careers may have been sparked Thursday, just as her own was, watching World Cup races in Beaver Creek growing up.
'It's like 100 was this reset moment, and 101 is like a restart almost, and that's the way I'm trying to see it,' Shiffrin said. 'There's plenty of future left in my career hopefully, and I try to take it with the idea that it's not the end, it's not the beginning; it's somewhere in the beautiful middle.'
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