Duerr wins Spindleruv Mlyn SL, Shiffrin has to wait for 86th win

SPINDLERUV MLYN,CZECH REPUBLIC,28.JAN.23 – Lena Duerr. Photo: GEPA pictures

SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic — Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait for at least five more weeks before tying the World Cup record for most career wins with 86.

Mikaela Shiffrin finishes on a World Cup podium once again, but today it is on the second step. The master of the sport relinquished her first run lead to Germany’s Lena Duerr.

The 31-year-old Duerr had 14 podiums before today’s first World Cup slalom victory. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain and she skied amazingly well. Today, Duerr is the only one who prevented Shiffrin from matching Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 World Cup win total. The women’s World Cup now takes a break for the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Meribel, France.

Duerr skied at an incredibly elite level yesterday and again in the first run today. This season, until this race, when Shiffrin has led after the first run, she has finished the day with a victory. Duerr faced a nearly impossible task, but she accomplished the improbable. Shiffrin has talked about having to ski her best to win. She also continually draws attention to the quality of the field. Duerr is undoubtedly one of the skiers who constantly pushes Shiffrin to pursue better.

Shiffrin’s next chance will be in March when she resumes World Cup racing after the Feb. 6-19 world championships in France. World Championship races do not count toward World Cup wins.

“I don’t have any expectations going into it,” Shiffrin said about her next World Cup event, which will be either speed races in Kvitfjell, Norway on March 4-5 or tech races in Are, Sweden the following week.

“It’s just like every race of the season, trying to take it all in and enjoy – enjoy my skiing, enjoy when the other athletes are skiing better. Because there is always some to learn from that.”

Shiffrin had broken a tie on the all-time women’s list with former American teammate Lindsey Vonn last Tuesday. Vonn had 82 wins when she retired in 2019.

“It’s a really special position to be in to fight for the 86th victory. And it’s even more amazing considering that if I have, like today in the second run, if I’m not taking all the risk and like pop top level skiing, I’m not gonna win the race. So I have to be on my highest level, fully perfect in order to do it,” said Shiffrin.

On Sunday, Shiffrin held a commanding first-run lead of 0.67 seconds over Lena Duerr, but posted only the 14th-fastest time in the final run and was edged by 0.06 by the German skier.

“I felt like the first run I skied very well, and I actually skied quite well in the second as well,” Shiffrin said. “And six-tenths is actually not so much time. Lena has been strong all season and she deserves to win.”

Duerr is the first German woman to win a World Cup slalom since Maria Hoefl-Riesch won in Levi in 2012. It is not a surprise that Duerr has won it is a surprise it took this long. She becomes the oldest first-time slalom winner in the history of the World Cup.

It was Duerr’s second World Cup victory, coming 10 years to the day after she won a city event in Moscow.

Shiffrin, however, still set a record Sunday.

Her second place saw her wrap up the season-long slalom title with two races to spare. Her closest challenger in the discipline standings, Wendy Holdener, had a costly mistake in the opening run and the Swiss skier failed to qualify for the second run and didn’t score World Cup points.

It made Shiffrin the first woman to win seven season titles in slalom, surpassing Swiss standout Vreni Schneider, who won it six times in the 1980s and ’90s.

The women’s record for most titles in any discipline is held by Vonn, who won eight crystal globes as the best downhill skier of the season.

The other remarkable story on the podium is 19-year-old Croatian Zrinka Ljutic, who earned her first podium. She skied brilliantly during the morning run, and she used the fifth-fastest final run to accomplish her first trip to the steps.

The exciting result for the struggling Austrian team came from Franziska Gritsch. After a disappointing first run, the emerging Austrian had the fastest second run time and moved up 14 positions to finish sixth. Likewise, Norwegian Maria Therese Tviberg moved up 14 places and finished 10th.

In Spindleruv Mlyn, the women provided an abundance of inspired skiing as many of them needed to use this weekend as their last chance to prove themselves worthy of a spot on their nation’s World Championship squads.

Notably, two other North American athletes joined Shiffrin in the top ten. Laurence St-Germain earned her second top 10 and her best result of the season, seventh. And although it wasn’t the best performance by USA’s Paula Moltzan, it is a good sign when she doesn’t ski to her usual standards and finish eighth.

Canada’s Amelia Smart is the other North American to finish in the points. Smart recovered from a suboptimal morning to ski the eighth fastest second run and finish 20th

This was the final women’s race before the start of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Meribel, France.

Analysis of the fastest three and North Americans, and the results from Spindleruv Mlyn

Results January 29th Spindleruv Mlyn SL

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is a developing story, stay tuned for updates.