SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria: For Mikaela Shiffrin, the award for the perfect slalom skier this season is completely different from the 15 crystal globes the American star received earlier in her profession.
This one, for a change, doesn’t really feel like the tip of a season.
Shiffrin capped her marketing campaign that was marred by a current six-week damage layoff together with her record-extending 60th win in slalom and 97th total on the World Cup finals Saturday.
She had already locked up her record-equaling eighth slalom season title final week by profitable her first race again since hurting her knee in a downhill crash Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in January, however globes are solely handed over after the final race.
“It was like a middle season for me. I’m probably the most excited one to be here. Everyone wants to be home and I’m like: ‘No! We’ve just started again’,” stated Shiffrin, including her feeling had “a lot to do with the crowd here cheering so much. It gives this emotion like what we want to feel at races, so I’m already excited to be back.”
Shiffrin, who turned 29 on Wednesday, stated on Instagram the slalom can be her final race of the season, skipping Sunday’s big slalom and subsequent week’s velocity occasions.
“I am so happy to have these final two races, like they give me something to be really proud of,” Shiffrin stated.
The two-time Olympic champion sprained the MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her knee, whereas additionally nonetheless recovering from a bone bruise she had sustained at first of the season, when she was amongst a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash laborious in a packed January program, together with her companion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
“Oh wow, it’s been a wild season,” Shiffrin stated. “I am excited to see Alex, I am excited to go home, but I don’t want the season to be over.”
Shiffrin received 9 of the 21 races she competed on this season, however needed to concede the general title after lacking too many races when nursing her knee damage. The American has received the massive globe 5 occasions since 2017, with Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami all however confirmed as the brand new champion.
“I think it was quite a learning experience. There is always something you learn every season,” Shiffrin stated. “This one taught me a lot about patience, a lot about trust, a lot about communication, and learning how to manage pain and still ski. Those are really important things that I hope will be useful for the rest of my career.”
On Saturday, Shiffrin trailed Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden after the primary run however finally received the season-ending slalom by 0.54 seconds from Mina Fuerst Holtmann of Norway, whereas Swenn Larsson dropped to 3rd, 0.63 off the tempo.
Winning back-to-back races to wrap up her season left Shiffrin three victories in need of the 100-win mark, a milestone lengthy deemed unreachable.
With key rivals Petra Vlhova and Wendy Holdener ending their campaigns prematurely with accidents, Shiffrin has received seven slaloms this season, elevating her profession tally to 60. No different skier, male or feminine, has received greater than 46 races in a single self-discipline.
Asked in a course-side TV interview about her numbers of wins, Shiffrin took a breath earlier than answering.
“Just a little bit hard to process it all. It’s like these days just make me feel so invigorated, like so alive, and that’s what I’m focusing on. I’m trying to soak that all in,” she stated.
“I never really focused too much on the numbers, but now I feel OK with them, like it’s not pressure, it’s not anything, it’s just an honor.”
On a first-run course set by Shiffrin’s coach Karin Harjo, Swenn Larsson was 0.11 second quicker than Shiffrin.
“I felt really good on my skis, I thought my equipment for this run was really good set up. I was pushing,” stated Shiffrin, referring to the difficult course circumstances after in a single day rain softened the snow.
“It was quite OK, so I could ski how I wanted. Ideally, I can be maybe a little bit more clean on a couple of sections, but actually I think I pushed about to my maximum there.”
The subsequent ladies’s race on the finals is the large slalom on Sunday, when Gut-Behrami begins with a 95-point lead over her Italian challenger Federica Brignone.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
