Shiffrin Dominates Courchevel Giant Slalom With World Cup Win #34

Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) built upon her overall World Cup lead with her first FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom victory of the season in Courchevel, France Tuesday.

“It was a bit scrappy at some points, but that was the tactic today,” Shiffrin said. “I tried to be really aggressive, and almost went off the course a couple times. It was a really straight second run, so I was like ‘OK, you gotta take advantage of that!’ I’m really excited that I fought for it!”

Joining Shiffrin on the podium was home crowd favorite Tessa Worley. Skiing the fastest second run, Worley leaped from eighth after the first run into second place overall.  It was Worley's second podium of the season after she finished second in Soelden, and her best ever result at the French resort. 

Italian Manuela Moelgg, still chasing her first World Cup victory, finished third for the third time in a row this season. At the age of 34, she is in the midst of her most consistent season since the winter of 2008/09 . 

The defending overall World Cup Champion has totaled 621 points so far this season following Tuesday’s win. Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, who won the first two giant slalom races of the season, fell further behind in second following a disappointing 14th-place finish Tuesday. Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather is third overall after sitting out Tuesday’s race with a small bone fracture in her left hand. She hopes to return to the World Cup circuit Dec. 28-29 in Lienz, Austria.

Shiffrin also moved into the overall giant slalom World Cup lead Tuesday with 225 points. Rebensburg is second with 218 points. She also leads the overall downhill and slalom World Cup standings, but most importantly, she is just having fun skiing.

“Right now, I’m really enjoying skiing every discipline,” Shiffrin said. “Normally, if I ski slalom, I want to ski GS, if I ski GS I want to ski downhill or super-G. So right now I’m really enjoying it when I’m doing it, and that’s a fun place to be.”

With her victory Tuesday, Shiffrin moved into second among Americans with 34 World Cup victories. Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.), who won Saturday’s super-G, leads with 78 World Cup wins. Bode Miller is third with 33 Word Cup wins among Americans.

Up next, the women compete in parallel slalom under the lights in Courchevel