Lindsey Vonn had predicted it, Maria Höfl-Riesch watched in the finish area, everything was set for a historic skiing evening. In the night slalom in Flachau, Mikaela Shiffrin could have been the first woman on the planet to achieve 83 World Cup victories. A Slovak skier, however, carved the American in between.
The 27-year-old Petra Vlhova took advantage of the fact that her own trainer had put in the first run – and got a lead over Shiffrin, which she even expanded in the second round. So Vonn was just off the mark with her forecast: Shiffrin was denied the sole all-time record of World Cup victories. Like Vonn, she remains at her 82nd for the time being. Shiffrin is also only 27 years old.
The best German slalom driver Lena Dürr from Germering could have moved Shiffrin down another step on the podium – if she hadn’t made a mistake in run one, which gave her a crucial second on the stopwatch. In the end, Dürr ended up back where she has been for almost two years: among the best in the world, but not at the top, she was third on the day. Women’s head coach Andreas Puelacher had predicted it pretty much the same way: Dürr is technically the least inferior to Shiffrin of all the riders on the tour, but tends to “hackers”. Such a hacker, i.e. a mistake, was made by Dürr this time – in part one.
DSV Sport Board Member Wolfgang Maier after the race happily peeked out from under his cap, he had several occasions. All German starters reached race two: Jessica Hilzinger (SC Oberstdorf) and Emma Aicher (SC Mahlstetten) got their best World Cup results so far with eighth and ninth place, only Andrea Filser (SV Wildsteig) was eliminated.