Vlhova Wins Levi Slalom

The battle was on again, and for the first slalom race of the season, the winner was Petra Vlhova.

The Slovakian champion put together two perfect runs on an ideal slope under the polar lights of Finland, a country particularly dear to the Slovakian ace who decided to spend the last three weeks there to prepare herself at best for these races.

Vlhova led Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) by .11 of a second after the first run, then pulled away to prevail by 0.31. Lena Dürr (GER) finished .84 behind in third for the German skier's second career podium result, nearly nine years after winning a city event in Moscow.

Vlhova, who came into the weekend with valuable training the last three weeks in Levi and on the race slope, showed confidence and smoothness in her skiing both runs and stepped on the gas at the bottom of the second run to make up for time lost—winning by .31 seconds. Duerr earned her first-ever World Cup slalom podium, .84 seconds off the pace. With the podium, Durr claimed Germany's first World Cup podium in a women's slalom since December 29, 2013, when Maria Hoefl-Riesch finished third in Lienz, Austria.

A host of challengers were on their heels, already proving that this Olympic season will be an exciting one for the athletes and fans. Slovenia’s Andreja Slokar, who won last weekend’s parallel event in Lech, Austria, continued to show her consistency and strength, landing in fourth, with Swede Anna Swenn Larsson was fifth and 2021 slalom world champion and World Cup slalom discipline globe winner Austrian Katharina Liensberger in sixth.

The two slalom queens, Petra and Mikaela, now have the same number of reindeer, with four each. No skier other than Vlhova or Shiffrin has won the traditional season-opening slalom since then-overall champion Tina Maze triumphed in 2014.

Andreja Slokar (SLO), who won the parallel event last week, was 1.12 behind in fourth, followed by Anna Swenn Larsson (SWE), who was one-hundredth of a second further back in fifth. The Swedish skier returned from an injury to compete in her first World Cup race in 21 months. Katharina Liensberger (AUT), 2020-21 Slalom Globe winner, was 1.28 behind in sixth.

With a victory in giant slalom in Soelden, followed by a second place in the slalom opener, Shiffrin noted it was a great start to the season, despite recent frustrations with her back. “It’s a nearly perfect start, and especially after the last couple of weeks,” she said. “It’s easy to start getting greedy, and I feel like in order to win races you really have to earn it. I earned a second place today, but I didn’t quite earn the win, so I’ll try to do a little bit cleaner and stronger skiing tomorrow, but there are a lot of really solid pieces, and that’s it...that’s today. I got the podium and that’s awesome.”

Having trained at Official Training Site Copper Mountain, Colo. coming into Levi, Shiffrin had great conditions, but what was missing was the confidence of skiing on a pitch like that of the Levi Black slope. She lost some time on the pitch, struggling to find her timing on the first part of the pitch, saying, “...it was like the first five or six turns...I don’t know...it was like I was skiing backwards. It was just a little bit wrong timing, and it doesn’t take much to lose a lot of speed, especially with this snow because it’s so responsive.” Shiffrin was happy with the adjustments she made in the second run on the top flat section and will look to bring the positives from today’s race to tomorrow.

Paula Moltzan had a solid first run, finishing in 18th, and was bringing more heat and energy into the second run before she straddled on the pitch and DNFed. AJ Hurt, Nina O’Brien, and Lila Lapanja also started for the Americans but did not qualify for a second run.

With a victory in giant slalom in Soelden, followed by a second place in the slalom opener, Shiffrin noted it was a great start to the season, despite recent frustrations with her back. “It’s a nearly perfect start, and especially after the last couple of weeks,” she said. “It’s easy to start getting greedy, and I feel like in order to win races you really have to earn it. I earned a second place today, but I didn’t quite earn the win, so I’ll try to do a little bit cleaner and stronger skiing tomorrow, but there are a lot of really solid pieces, and that’s it...that’s today. I got the podium and that’s awesome.”

Having trained at Official Training Site Copper Mountain, Colo. coming into Levi, Shiffrin had great conditions, but what was missing was the confidence of skiing on a pitch like that of the Levi Black slope. She lost some time on the pitch, struggling to find her timing on the first part of the pitch, saying, “...it was like the first five or six turns...I don’t know...it was like I was skiing backwards. It was just a little bit wrong timing, and it doesn’t take much to lose a lot of speed, especially with this snow because it’s so responsive.” Shiffrin was happy with the adjustments she made in the second run on the top flat section and will look to bring the positives from today’s race to tomorrow.

Paula Moltzan had a solid first run, finishing in 18th, and was bringing more heat and energy into the second run before she straddled on the pitch and DNFed. AJ Hurt, Nina O’Brien, and Lila Lapanja also started for the Americans but did not qualify for a second run.