Vlhova Is The 2020 "Snow Queen" Of Zagreb
Under a vibrant setting sun in the capital city of Croatia, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia had a banner day, winning her sixth World Cup slalom and the Zagreb Snow Queen Trophy. taking her first slalom win in Zagreb, thanks to two perfect runs. Vlhova was leading already after first run - 1.16s ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) - and pushed even more in the second run, finishing 1.31s in front of the American superstar. Mikaela Shiffrin took yet another FIS Ski World Cup podium, finishing second in the Zagreb night slalom. Katharina Liensberger of Austria took third, 3.49 seconds off the pace.
The day started off with a challenge for Mikaela, who had a bobble on her first run that set her back more than a second behind Petra. But Mikaela put the hammer down second run and came out over two seconds ahead to take the lead. During Mikaela's second run, the crowd was silent in the finish area...sustained silence with each split, as the crowd watched in awe and sheer wonderment. Would it be enough? As she crossed the finish line, the crowd erupted into cheers. Mikaela wondered too—she wondered if it could be enough to secure the win, but Petra's strength, aggression and perfect timing triumphed, as she built on her first-run advantage and smoked the field, taking the overall win by 1.31 seconds.
While Petra's victory broke Mikaela’s nearly year-long slalom win streak, Mikaela could only praise Petra’s performance and talked of her excitement about the competition. “She’s been building and building and getting better and stronger and her discipline is amazing,” said Mikaela. “I’ve said from the beginning that if she’s really on, I have to be skiing my best, perfect, fastest skiing in order to stay ahead of her. Today I was as strong as I could be—especially in the second run—but it wasn’t strong enough. I could see the difference.”
While the crowd often expects Mikaela to win all slalom World Cups, Mikaela reminded her fans that she never presumes first place. “I’m never going to a race expecting that I’m going to win—especially when I have competitors like Petra,” she said. “She doesn’t win these races from luck. She wins because she’s working really hard.”
Mikaela and Petra have combined to win the last 24 World Cup slaloms—19 for Mikaela and five for Petra. And although she was bummed to not take the win, Mikaela was excited about how she and Petra are elevating slalom skiing. “This is how competition is supposed to be,” said Mikaela. “She’s pushing the limits, so then I’m pushing the limits and it’s raising the level of slalom skiing. That’s really cool to be a part of.”
Paula Moltzan also started on Saturday, but she hit a rut off-balanced and got thrown off, DNFing. She is OK, and was able to get up and ski away. Mikaela still holds on to the overall World Cup with a 313-point lead over Petra and she also holds a 120-point lead over Petra in the race to the slalom title.
Next up, the men race the Zagreb night slalom on Sunday. The women head to Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria for a downhill and alpine combined beginning Saturday. Mikaela has yet to confirm whether or not she will participate in Altenmarkt-Zuachensee.
