Alpine skiing
Ski star Shiffrin is celebrating a triumphant comeback
Mikaela Shiffrin won impressively in Are. photo
© Alessandro Trovati/AP/dpa
Mikaela Shiffrin shines on her World Cup return. After the victory in Are, she has secured the small crystal ball as slalom queen for the eighth time. Lena Dürr missed the podium by a hair’s breadth.
The American won in Are, Sweden and can no longer be pushed off the top of the discipline rankings in the last slalom of the season next weekend in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
In her first race after a six-week injury break, Shiffrin won by more than a second ahead of Croatian Zrinka Ljutic and Swiss Michelle Gisin. Lena Dürr from Munich missed her next podium place by just a hundredth of a second in fourth place. The 32-year-old was the only athlete Shiffrin still had to fear. However, Dürr’s deficit in the slalom rankings was enormous. Her German teammate Emma Aicher surprisingly finished seventh.
No more chance in the overall World Cup
Shiffrin had a serious fall on the Cortina d’Ampezzo descent at the end of January and had been sidelined ever since. When she returned, she raced straight to the 96th World Cup success of her career. However, she will no longer intervene in the fight for the overall World Cup victory this winter.
Federica Brignone won the giant slalom. The Italian thus postponed the decisions in the overall World Cup and in the discipline ranking. Lara Gut-Behrami is clearly ahead in both classifications before the season finale. The Swiss also leads in the downhill and super-G and could therefore win four crystal balls.