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Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Shiffrin takes 101st World Cup win, globes for Ljutic, Kristoffersen
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States reacts after winning the women's slalom at the World Cup Finals (Sean M. Haffey) Mikaela Shiffrin won her 101st career World Cup race on Thursday, taking the women's slalom season finale while Zrinka Ljutic captured the discipline's globe. While on the men's side, it was a big day for Norway as Timon Haugan won the men's slalom finale and compatriot Henrik Kristoffersen took home the season globe for the event. Shiffrin, a four-time world champion and 2014 Olympic champion in slalom, captured her 64th career World Cup slalom triumph. She took her 100th overall career World Cup victory in a slalom event last month at Sestriere, Italy. Advertisement "It was tough conditions," Shriffin said. "There were big tracks and a little bit wild rides sometimes, but I felt connected with the snow. "My skis felt perfect and I could keep moving down the hill. It felt quite good to ski." The 30-year-old American had a two-run combined time of 1min 45.92sec with Germany's Lena Duerr second in 1:47.05 and Slovenian Andreja Slokar rounding out the podium 0.01sec slower. Croatia's Ljutic captured her first globe with a 10th-place finish in 1:48.60. That was good enough for her first globe by 32 points over Austrian Katharina Liensberger, who was fifth in 1:47.86. Advertisement On the final run of the last race of the season in the men's competition, Norwegian Haugan completed a combined time of 1min 43.61secs to edge France's Clement Noel by 0.03 of a second, with Austrian Fabio Gstrein third in 1:43.98. Kristoffersen took fourth in 1:44.03 and captured the season points chase 662-610 ahead of Swiss Loic Meillard, the reigning world champion who was fifth in 1:44.26, with Haugan on 609 and Noel on 606. Shiffrin, who missed two months of the season after an abdominal injury in November, was too far back to win the slalom title for the ninth time in her career after taking the 2023 and 2024 globes. "It has been quite up and down but I realized at 30 I'm still learning things every season," she said. "There are new and exciting adventures around the corner and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next." Advertisement She was thrilled at her fourth win of the season. "It just boils down to the final moment I'm in the start gate and it's just me," Shriffin said. "Thinking about strong things. I have a lot of doubt in the day but in that moment, it's like just focus on the technical things as my cues and high intensity. "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I'm happy it worked today." - Tense fights for globes - Ljutic, the standings leader, was vulnerable but Switzerland's Camille Rast, second in the points chase at 41 behind, had a combined time of 1:48.83, unable to overtake Ljutic and finishing 14th. Advertisement Liensberger, who began the day 51 points back in third, completed the second run just behind Ljutic. Haugan, 28, took his fourth career World Cup race victory, all in slalom, and his third win of the season after Alta Badia, Italy and Schladming, Austria. Noel and Meillard had chances into the last run but Kristoffersen knew he had clinched the globe after his second run, roaring with joy and then lying down and crying in the snow. "I made too many mistakes today. There was a lot of pressure," he told the International Ski Federation. "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to withstand this kind of pressure. It's getting harder and harder." rg/js/nf
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Shiffrin gets 101st win; Ljutic and Krisoffersen clinch last trophies
USA's Mikaela Shiffrin competes in the Women's Slalom event of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach. Jens Büttner/dpa Mikaela Shiffrin produced another slalom masterclass to claim a 101st career victory in front of an American home crowd, while 10th place was enough for Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic to clinch the discipline title on Thursday. Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen then denied Switzerland a sweep of all men's World Cup trophies when he claimed the slalom title by placing third in the season-ender won by compatriot Timon Haugan in Sun Valley. Advertisement Shiffrin dominates, Ljutic also celebrates Shiffrin won by a massive 1.13 seconds over German Lena Dürr. Andreja Slokar of Slovenia rose from eighth to third in the final women's race of the season, another one-hundredths back. Three-time season winner Ljutic prevailed in the race for the discipline title, winning her first trophy 32 points from Austrian Katharina Liensberger and 49 from Swiss world champion Camille Rast. Liensberger was fifth on Thursday and Rast 14th. "I got it, it's mine. I sort of knew I would win it. I just didn't know how," said Ljutic who follows in the footsteps of famed compatriot Janica Kostelic, who won the slalom World Cup three times. Advertisement "I will maybe get drunk for the first time in my life," she said. Shiffrin managed fourth place in the standings with the help of four victories, just 55 points off Ljutic although she missed four of the 10 slaloms - and races in other disciplines - due to an abdominal injury she sustained in late November. The American ski queen was out of action for two months which also cost her a shot at another overall title. But she became the first ever skier to win 100 races last month in Sestriere, Italy, and her now 157 podiums are also a record. Thursday's victory put her over 500 points in the overall standings which will assure her of good bib numbers in the giant slalom next season. Advertisement "It was a spectacular day but in the end I could focus on the important things, the things that make me strong. It was a wonderful day," Shiffrin told Austrian broadcasters ORF. Norwegian joy Haugan got his third career victory three-hundredths of a second ahead of French Olympic champion Clement Noel and .37 from Kristoffersen. That gave Kristoffersen the slalom title for the fourth time in his career, nine years after the first, 52 points ahead of Swiss world champion Loic Meillard and 53 clear of Haugan. Meillard placed fifth on the day which was not enough to leapfrog Kristoffersen and complete a Swiss men's trophy sweep, after Marco Odermatt had won the other four: overall, downhill, super-g and giant slalom. Advertisement "It was tough. Congratulations to Timon, to Loic and Clement for a great season," Kristoffersen said. "Days like these are hell, to be honest. I don't know how long I can keep going," he added. "The first one was nine years ago, that's not too bad, but it doesn't get any easier."
Associated Press
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Mikaela Shiffrin glides through tricky course to grab 1st-run lead in slalom at World Cup finals
SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin grabbed the first-run slalom lead by rhythmically gliding through a tricky course Thursday at the World Cup finals. The American ski racing standout finished in a time of 52.05 seconds. Shiffrin has a 0.59-second advantage over Lena Duerr of Germany heading into the final run. Everyone else in the field trails by more than a second. Shiffrin charged through the course at Sun Valley with a large crowd cheering her on at the bottom. It's been an injury-marred season for Shiffrin, who's competing in her only event at finals. The 30-year-old Shiffrin has missed four slalom races this season that's taken her out of the running to capture a third straight crystal globe in the discipline. But she can still earn a second- or third-place finish with a strong final run, along with some help. Croatian ski racer Zrinka Ljutic has the lead in the season-long slalom title race. She finished the first run in 12th place and 1.99 seconds behind Shiffrin's time. The 21-year-old Ljutic captured last season's 'rising star' award and is showing that talent ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Camille Rast of Switzerland was in 14th position after the first run. She's 41 points behind Ljutic in the slalom standings. For Shiffrin, the end of a painful season is drawing to a close. She's worked her way back from a serious giant slalom crash in Killington, Vermont, in late November, where she suffered a deep puncture wound that caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles. The crash led to emotional trauma, too, leaving her with post-traumatic stress disorder in the GS. This season has also included a memorable milestone for Shiffrin when she won her 100th World Cup race during a slalom in Italy on Feb. 23. On Thursday, in anticipation of Shiffrin possibly winning World Cup race No. 101, there were kids in the crowd dressed in puppy outfits — a nod to Disney's '101 Dalmatians.' When she takes the slalom course, any slalom course, Shiffrin's been tough to beat. She's won three of the five World Cup slalom races she's been in this season. Over her career, Shiffrin has finished first, second or third in a World Cup slalom race in 88 of 117 starts, which is a 75.2% podium rate. She's won 63 times — a 53.8% victory rate. ___
Boston Globe
30-01-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Mikaela Shiffrin gets back on World Cup circuit, finishes 10th in first slalom since December Killington crash
'I didn't come into this race expecting that I was going to win,' Shiffrin said. 'I have to be at my top, top level. Now we build from here.' Shiffrin crashed Nov. 30 in a giant slalom at Killington, and Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Shiffrin said before this race that she was prioritizing her recovery ahead of chasing the magic 100. Advertisement 'It was a very important step in my recovery to see how I'm stacking up with the top skiers in the world, and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing,' Shiffrin said. 'Also before the world championships it was so important to get this start.' We are thrilled to see Mikaela Shiffrin's return to racing after her crash last November. Good luck in Courchevel this Thursday, Mikaela! Photo courtesy of Dustin Satloff — Killington Resort (@KillingtonMtn) The worlds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, are next month, where Shiffrin will be eyeing medals in giant slalom and slalom. 'For sure I want to target the GS and slalom and everything really depends on the next 10 days until those races, how it goes with training,' she said. 'I'm catching up to the fastest in the world so I have a lot of work to do.' A massive 62 of Shiffrin's 99 World Cup wins have been in slalom. She cupped her hands and then waved to the crowd after finishing her second run. No other skier, male or female, has won more than 86 World Cup races. Having overtaken Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, she needed a podium finish to equal Stenmark's record of 155 World Cup podiums. She was not quite ready to aim for that. Advertisement 'It felt challenging and the top women, they are are skiing amazing,' Shiffrin said. 'I am so happy to be back competing with them, hopefully I get faster in the next weeks.' Chasing a seventh straight win in slaloms, Shiffrin was the sixth racer to start at shortly after 5 p.m. local time and with the slightly fading light. Shiffrin was a bit low on her skis but made up some time on the bottom section, finishing 0.87 seconds behind first-leg leader Ljutic, who crossed the line in 51.88 seconds. 'I want to watch the video from the first run. It was like a little bit of my timing or rhythm [was missing] to catch the track in the right way,' Shiffrin said. 'I had some really good turns and some not fast turns.' Zrinka Ljutic dominates under the lights in Courchevel for her third World Cup victory! 🏆⛷️✨ Race highlights here!👀 — FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) A smiling Shiffrin walked over to hug Ljutic as the young Croat sat watching from the leader's chair. Ljutic had to pinch herself after winning such a dominant race. 'I'm living the dream now, so don't wake me up,' she said. Shiffrin's been in Ljutic's position so many times before, but her expectations were more realistic after two months out. Swiss racer Wendy Holdener was second after the first run, but she lost balance and missed a gate early in her second. Austrian Katharina Liensberger placed fourth ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast, who won the previous slalom in Flachau. World slalom champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada placed 36th in the first run — around 3 seconds behind Ljutic — and did not make the second stint. Rast leads the slalom standings with 450 points ahead of Ljutic on 409. Shiffrin is ninth with 226. Advertisement Italian Federica Brignone leads the World Cup standings, with Shiffrin down in 17th.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Zrinka Ljutic wins Courchevel slalom; Mikaela Shiffrin returns from injury
Croatian Zrinka Ljutic earned her third World Cup slalom win this season, while Mikaela Shiffrin placed 10th in her first race in two months as she works her way back from tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash. Ljutic, 21, prevailed by 1.26 seconds over Swede Sara Hector combining times from two runs in Courchevel, France, on Thursday evening. "I had no idea if I'm fast or not, and there were some tracks which I got caught off," Ljutic said of the second run. "Then I just wanted to push, and I was like, 'Oh, screw it. I probably already lost my lead.' So I tried to push all the way down, and I don't believe it." She became the first woman other than Shiffrin and 2022 Olympic gold medalist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia to win three World Cup slaloms in one season since 2011-12 (Marlies Schild of Austria). ALPINE SKIING: Results | Broadcast Schedule Ljutic's first two victories came in the absence of both Shiffrin and Vlhova, the latter sidelined since a race crash last January. She is the first Croatian woman to win on the World Cup since four-time Olympic gold medalist Janica Kostelic's last victory in 2006. "I'm living the dream, and don't wake me up," Ljutic said. Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the first run — .87 behind leader Ljutic — then turned in the 22nd-fastest second run, ultimately finishing 2.04 seconds behind. Shiffrin, a record 99-time World Cup winner, said last week that she will likely deal with the remnants of the injury through the rest of the season that ends in March. 'It's very much a step-by-step process, and this return to competition is part of the recovery," she said in comments distributed by her team Wednesday. "It actually doesn't even mean I'm recovered or I'm back to 100%. It means that we've gotten far enough in the recovery now that I'm strong enough physically, and I've had enough turns of slalom, to feel comfortable to push out of the start gate.' Courchevel marked the final women's World Cup race before the world championships, which start next Tuesday in Saalbach, Austria. Shiffrin is targeting the last two races of worlds in her primary events — the giant slalom on Feb. 13 and the slalom on Feb. 15. She could also race the women's team combined on Feb. 11. The team combined — where nations field up to four teams of two ski racers each, one for a downhill run and one for a slalom run — makes its worlds debut this year and its Olympic debut next year. 'All of my teammates have been showing incredible speed this season, and I would be lucky and so excited to pair with anyone one of them for team combined if I'm in the position to be able to race!" Shiffrin said before Courchevel. "That entirely depends on whether I can get the proper GS preparation between Courchevel and world champs to be ready for return to GS racing, in enough time to also consider cutting that prep block shorter to start world championships earlier with team combined.' Alpine skiing 2024-25 FIS World Cup season: TV, streaming schedule How to watch the world's best Alpine skiers on NBC Sports and Peacock. Nick Zaccardi, Nick Zaccardi,
