Canada’s St-germain Does The ‘Impossible’ & Snatches Slalom Gold Ahead Of Shiffrin

Laurence St-Germain, a University of Vermont All-American who races for Canada, continued Canada’s incredible World Champs by winning a gold medal. This was the first time St-Germain has finished in the top five in a World Cup-level ski race and it is the first slalom gold for Canada in 63 years. Laurence started bib 18, finished third after first run and jumped up to the top of the podium after an aggressive second run. Lena Duerr of Germany, a regular on slalom World Cup podiums, was third to win her first career World Championship medal.

Racing in bib No.18, St-Germain had already produced a brilliantly dynamic first run to stand third, behind Shiffrin and Swiss slalom star Wendy Holdener. But facing a direct course set, with a key transition from the steep pitch to the flat, the Canadian went full gas from the gate second time round.

“I just wanted to really attack,” said St-Germain, who is Canada’s first female slalom world champion since Anne Heggtveit took gold in 1960 in Squaw Valley, when the Olympic Games doubled up as the world championships.

“I had a bit of mistake (at the top) but kept just thinking go down, go down, go down. And it worked out,” St-Germain continued.

A member of the Canadian skier’s backroom staff had a dream several days ago that St-Germain won silver. But St-Germain’s combined time of 1:43.15 gave her gold by more than half-a-second to continue Canada’s dream World Championships.

Even if their newest champion could hardly believe what she had done.

“I saw 1 (on the scoreboard in the finish area) and I (thought) that can’t happen. I was like ‘God, it’s impossible’,” St-Germain laughed.

“I knew I was skiing fast in training and I knew if I stuck to my plan then I could do good things. But winning was not expected at all, like ever.”

She joins James Crawford (men’s super-G champion), Cameron Alexander (men’s downhill bronze medallist) and the Mixed Team Parallel quartet (bronze medallists) as Canada’s newest superstars.

The skier St-Germain relegated to second – a place she is not used to – was blown away by the Canadian’s efforts.

“Today was incredible,” said Shiffrin. “It was such a joy to race today, especially after the last two weeks and everything that has happened. … I was so happy with my first run and really happy with a lot of sections on my second run. Here and there, I backed off a little bit and it’s not enough for gold. And Laurence—what an exciting day for the Canadian team! Really really happy for them.”

Shiffrin held the lead after first run, but tricky light and deteriorating snow, along with exhaustion following a long two weeks of racing, slowed her down to finish just behind St-Germain in second place.

“For me, it wasn’t the conditions; it was the end of two weeks,” said Shiffrin. “If I’m a little bit tired, I cannot move quick enough in slalom. I can move quick enough, of course, I have a silver medal, but somebody can move faster. I know how I want to ski it, but I didn’t execute it the whole way from top to bottom so it’s not enough for gold. You can lose a second so fast.”

Shiffrin holds more World Champs medals than any athlete in modern alpine skiing history. She broke the record with her gold medal win in the giant slalom on Thursday and continues to build on the record with her 14th medal today. She also has seven World Championship gold medals, which is tied for the record of most gold medals in history.

Her silver took her to a total of 14 world championship medals, just one behind all-time leader Christel Cranz. It completed a Championships that has seen the American claim a gold and two silvers, taking her record to 17 starts: seven golds, four silvers and three bronze medals.

But it has not all been plain sailing for the 27-year-old.

“For me, the last two weeks it’s been ups and downs and everything in-between,” said Shiffrin who lost out on several expected gold medals and saw her long-time coach Mike Day leave during the Championships.

“It’s been a complete World Championship and I can’t really explain the emotion to finish it with another medal. I had never dreamed that it would have so many different emotions and disappointment and excitement and stress and some just incredible moments. I am actually grateful for it all.”

Bronze medallist Duerr was simply grateful that this time she ended up the right side of the clock.

“It’s always sad when someone skis out and you are advancing from this,” explained Duerr after seeing Holdener lose out on what looked like a certain medal with a surprise error three-quarters of the way down her second run.

“But in skiing you always get those hundredths (of a second) back and last year at the Olympics I was fourth by a few hundredths so maybe this is the day I get my hundredths back.”

This time it was Norwegian Mina Fuerst Holtmann who missed out by 0.02 seconds, with reigning Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova finishing fifth, after struggling to find her best.

USA's Katie Hensien, who won a World Championship gold in the team event earlier in the week, finished 26th. “I was really happy about my first run—some mistakes but all in all some solid skiing,” said Hensien. “Second run wasn’t it for me, but I’m happy to take away two runs today. Plus my GS performance, I’m happy I’m taking the right steps forward and it’s showing.”

Rounding out the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team, Nina O’Brien did not finish her first run and Ava Sunshine did not finish the second. Paula Moltzan announced that she would be returning back to the U.S. for surgery after breaking her hand in the team parallel where she won gold and plans to return to the World Cup when she has recovered.