Shiffrin Speeds To Courchevel Giant Slalom Victory

Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.) keeps stepping on the gas, and the victories just keep adding up. On Friday in Courchevel, France, she won another FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom - her first of the season and the sixth of her career - to extend her overall World Cup lead to a massive 422 points.

Shiffrin rebounded from a .08-second first-run deficit to take a narrow .14-second win over Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg. Tessa Worley of France finished third at just .33 back. The top eight finishers were separated by just 0.93 seconds.

iktoria Rebensburg of Germany led after the first run and gave Shiffrin tight competition, finishing in second place just 0.14 seconds back for her second podium finish of the season. Tessa Worley, meanwhile, delighted the French fans simply by starting in the race after suffering a meniscus tear in her knee during a crash in the Lake Louise super-G. After being cleared by her doctor to return to skiing this week, she made the decision to start her home race and was rewarded with third place for her impressive efforts. 

With heavy, wet, snow falling in the French Alps, Shiffrin had to choose when to step on the gas and when to back off Friday. The first run finish times clocked in at just past the minute mark, but with heavy snow continuing to fall, organizers pushed the start about ten gates down the mountain, effectively setting up a second-run sprint. With a pedal to the medal approach out of the start, Shiffrin separated herself from the rest of the field just three gates into the second run.

“The first run I was pushing really hard out of the start, because it’s so flat that you have to do that, but after the first couple of gates...I was skiing hard, but too much, and I could see that in the video,” Shiffrin said. “So the second run I was thinking, ‘push harder out of the start and go more direct in the first gates and then just let it go from there.’ I was trying to build up speed as quick as I could...I don’t know how fast it was, but I was pushing really hard, and farther than everybody else.”

It seems Courchevel, France has been kind to Shiffrin, as she won her third-straight victory at the venue. "I like it in France. And, it's starting to feel...more familiar for me," Shiffrin said with a giggle at the press conference, referring to her relationship with French giant slalom specialist, Mathieu Faivre. 

In the chase for her third-consecutive overall World Cup title, Shiffrin has won six races this season, including her fourth-straight start (two super-G, a parallel slalom and Friday’s giant slalom), and leads Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel by 422 points in the overall World Cup standings. She also leads the slalom and super-G standings, and is second in giant slalom and ninth in downhill.

Through the first six weeks of the season, Shiffrin has racked up some impressive results, in addition to a significant amount of travel and training time. Following her back-to-back victories in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec. 8-9, she took some time away from competition to rest and recharge her body, mind and soul as she heads into another solid stretch of races - seven over a 19-day stretch - which kicked off with a victory Friday. She was also able to dial in her giant slalom set-up and got a bit of slalom training in, up in Trysil, Norway. Up next, she’ll race the slalom Saturday in Courchevel ahead of a six-day holiday break before the White Circus resumes Dec. 28-29 in Semmering, Austria.

“Today was a great way to start this weekend...but I didn’t get a lot of slalom training the (past few days), so I’m just going to move my feet quick and see what happens (Saturday),” she giggled.

AJ Hurt (Squaw Valley, Calif.) and Tricia Mangan (Derby, N.Y.) joined Shiffrin in the first run and each showed promise with solid skiing, but couldn't hang on in the chatter and both DNFed. Paula Moltzan (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Nina O’Brien (San Francisco, Calif.) - who both scored points in the last World Cup slalom at Killington, Vermont - will also be starting in Saturday’s slalom.

RESULTS
Women’s giant slalom