Shiffrin wins Spindleruv Mlyn slalom, moves within 1 win of World Cup record

SPINDLERUV MLYN,CZECH REPUBLIC,28.JAN.23 – Mikaela Shiffrin. Photo: GEPA pictures

SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin dominated a slalom Saturday for her 85th career victory to move within one of the World Cup record set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.

Shiffrin can match the best mark of 86 wins in another slalom Sunday.

Spindleruv Mlyn offered a fantastic race venue and crowd. It was a perfect setting for Mikaela Shiffrin to win her 85th career World Cup. Undoubtedly, maintaining her process focus must be very difficult, with so much attention on her outcomes. It would be so fitting if she matched the win total of Ingemar Stenmark tomorrow at the venue where her World Cup career began in 2011.

The race took place at the resort near the Czech-Polish border where she had her World Cup debut as a 15-year-old almost 12 years ago. Shiffrin also won when the venue last hosted a World Cup race, in 2019.

“Wow, I can you hear you all so loud. Thank you for cheering, it’s amazing to race for this crowd,” she said to the spectators during a post-race interview.

There is no doubt Shiffrin can win in any conditions. She can win skiing all types of course sets. She can win on any slope. Most of all, she finds a way to succeed in a fantastic field of elite athletes. She is in a situation that only a few in any industry exist.

Even when faced with a challenge, Shiffrin can find her outside ski and arc it as much as possible. She knows she has to push to her limit, but on a typical day, her limitation is higher than the other women’s. Once again, she won both runs in today’s race.

The American held a lead of 0.29 seconds after the opening run, but lost one-tenth of the advantage after going wide on a few turns early in the second before speeding up and posting the fastest run time again to beat Germany’s Dürr by 0.60 seconds.

Shiffrin laid the foundation for her victory with a clean opening run, in which she had a fast start and already led her competitors by at least a quarter of a second at the first intermediate time.

She also gained time on most racers in a tricky passage halfway through her run, where the course set allowed various ways to pass the gates.

“You could ski it either way,” Shiffrin said. “I was able to really carry a lot of speed on the end of the course. In the end, I felt very good on my run.”

“I knew it would take some risk and there’s a chance that I don’t finish at all, but I have to do my best turns to have a chance because these women are so strong,” Shiffrin said.

Today, there was the thrill of Shiffrin chasing another victory and there was a great race for second place. Lena Duerr was, without a doubt, the second best. Her skiing was very clean and she could find her inside edge early in the turns and accelerate to the finish. Amazingly, this woman with 13 podiums and tremendous skills has never won a slalom, likely because she competes in the era of Shiffrin.

In third today is Switzerland’s, Wendy Holdener. She used the fourth fastest final run to move up one position and finish on the podium. Right behind her is the fantastic Petra Vlhova. She had the most extensive fan base in the finish but struggled in the final sector, causing her to drop one position to fourth.

American Paula Moltzan had the opposite experience. After losing speed into the flat during the first run, she skied brilliantly on the second run to move from 11th to fifth. Her final run was the third fastest of the afternoon. Moltzan continues to show all the skills needed to be a regular podium contender in both giant slalom and slalom.

Three Canadians also were able to score points today. Laurence St-Germain finished the day 15th. Ali Nullmeyer struggled to find her usual speed but finished 19th. Amelia Smart made a big mistake in the flat and had no momentum to the finish but scored a valuable World Cup point.

The biggest move of the second run came from Croatia’s Leona Popovic. She tied Shiffrin for the fastest second run and moved from 20th to seventh. Also, bib 46, Italian, Anita Gulli moved 11 positions to finish 14th. Notably, Sweden’s Junior World SL and GS Champion, Hanna Aronsson Elfman, raced with bib 24 and ended the day eighth.

Analysis of the fastest three, North Americans and final results.

Results of January 28th Spindleruv Mlyn SL

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is a developing story, stay tuned for updates.