American star Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the track after a six-week injury layoff and won the Alpine World Cup slalom at the Swedish winter center Ore. Thus, she won the small crystal globe in this discipline for a record eighth time.
Mikaela Shiffrin clocked 1:42.95 min after being fastest in both heats – 49.94 sec in the first and 53.01 sec in the second. For her, this is the 96th career success for the World Cup.
Zrinka Ljutic (Croatia) was second with a delay of 1.24 sec, and Michelle Gisin (Switzerland) was third, 1.34 sec behind the winner.
Mikaela Shiffrin recorded her eighth victory of the season overall and sixth in the slalom to clinch the event title with one race to go. With second-placed Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) sidelined with injury, her only challenger left was Lena Duerr (German), who missed out on the podium by one-hundredth of a second in fourth place.
Mikaela Shiffrin tied with Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark (slalom) and fellow American skier Lindsey Vonn (downhill) with eight trophies in one event.
Mikaela Shiffrin missed 11 races, including one slalom, after suffering a knee injury and other injuries in a fall Jan. 26 during the downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“It was so good to compete again today. I’m really proud of my team and myself”, said the American alpine skier.
Being 345 points behind Lara Gut-Behrami (Switzerland), Mikaela Shiffrin has a mathematical chance of challenging for a sixth World Cup. But she said she will not compete in speed events until the end of the season.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who did not compete on Sunday, has 1,654 points at the top, 282 more than Federica Brignone (Italy), who managed just four points in 27th place today. Mikaela Shiffrin is third with 1,309 points.
Lara Gut-Behrami also leads the downhill, super-G and giant slalom ahead of the World Cup finals over the next two weekends in Saalbach-Hinterglemm (Austria).
For the small World Cup downhill, Mikaela Shiffrin has 730 points, ahead of Petra Vlhova with 505 points and Lena Duerr with 492 points.
