The record of 83 victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup in Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait for at least ten days in Cortina d’Ampezzo -this weekend she resigns from the St. Anton event where downhill and Super-G are held- after this Tuesday in the night slalom of Flachau the Slovakian Petra Vlhova beat the American by 0.43, whom she had already dominated after the first round by 0.17.
Shiffrin, who this Sunday in the giant of Kranjska Gora equaled the women’s record for victories in the World Cup of her compatriot Lindsey Vonn (82) had her first opportunity to take the lead alone in the Flachau slalom. The 27-year-old American had won six of the last seven events on the circuit and this year she had won four of the six slalom contests.
But the Olympic champion Vlhova has been imperial in both descents. In the first, she was the best of all with 55.90 and 17 hundredths better than Shiffrin. Just before them, the German Lena Dürr went down, to whom an error in the first round had conditioned the result when she marked the best sets, giving up 0 “96 to the Slovak to finish fourth. In her second descent, she claimed vindication by setting the best time of the sleeve 55 “94 with three competitors to finish.
The first discarded was the young Croatian Ljutic for a wheelie in the first sector. Behind her, Shiffrin did not ski fluently enough (she was fourth in this second descent), she has surpassed the German in the computation, but she has left the victory expedited for the Slovakian who has collected the assistance of her rival to prevail, her first victory of the season by 0″43 over Shiffrin and 0″85 over Dürr.
Shiffrin’s next chance to break the record will be at the super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy), in 10 days. This weekend he will not participate in the speed races of St. Anton. It was precisely in Cortima that Vonn broke Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s previous record of 62 victories eight years ago.
