Andreja Slokar Wins Last SL Of The Season
With the women’s slalom globe having already been claimed by Petra Vlhova (SVK) earlier on in the season, the remaining athletes were racing to improve their position in the cup standings.
After the first run, Lena Duerr (GER) was claiming a 0.37 second lead over Michelle Gisin (SUI) and 0.40 seconds on Ana Bucik (SLO). Unfortunately, both Gisin and Bucik didn’t manage to hold onto their positions in the second run. Gisin didn’t complete her second run, whereas Bucik completed hers, but finished just off the podium in 4th.
Duerr completed a solid second run performance, however, it wasn’t even to keep up with Andreja Slokar’s second-run performance. Slokar finished 0.75 seconds behind Duerr in the first run, but blew the field away and ended up finishing 0.48 seconds ahead of her in the second run. Slokar claimed her first World Cup slalom victory to add on to her parallel victory earlier on in the season in Lech/Zuers (AUT).
Olympic slalom champion, Vlhova, finished 3rd behind the Slovenian and German to claim her eighth slalom World Cup podium of the season. Having already won the slalom globe back in January, Vlhova didn’t have any additional pressure on her shoulders when competing today and could really enjoy racing to its fullest.
Mikaela Shiffrin's slalom season came to its conclusion Saturday with an eighth-place finish. Shiffrin was also acknowledged for her overall season performance, where she finished second in the overall standings behind Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova.
Warm weather and sunny conditions made the snow a bit softer on the pitch than Shiffrin likes it, and she struggled to find her perfect balance in Saturday's slalom. Although she was not completely satisfied with her result, Shiffrin was happy to have the opportunity to ski a few good turns and celebrate a hard-fought slalom season under blue skies.
"In past races I've shown not much speed in these softer conditions," commented Shiffrin. "It's something I didn't have time to figure out before now, but now we have something I can really work on over the summer if we want to try and improve a bit on this kind of softer snow."
When asked if she is looking forward to the final race of the season, the giant slalom on Sunday, she said, "I'm optimistic. I think it's a chance for me to again try to work on some things in softer snow. Normally I won't risk something unless I feel that there is something to get back from the surface. But I'm also watching all the other competitors when they're skiing really well on these kinds of conditions, their movements and how they're able to perform and I'm hopeful that I have the chance to perform like that as well."
Teammate Paula Moltzan finished 16th in the final slalom on Saturday, landing her in the top 20 ranking in slalom overall.
