A thunderous start to the season. Our skiing star Petra Vlhová showed a great performance in the opening giant slalom of the new World Cup season in Sölden, where she finished third, after struggling with an illness in October. Liptáčka confirmed her excellent readiness for the new winter in the slaloms in Levi.
news-item-description">In the 2023/24 World Cup in downhill skiing, Slovakia will be represented again by the Olympic slalom gold holder from Beijing 2022, Petra Vlhová, who is the strongest in slalom. In addition to the most winding discipline, she also plans to start in the giant slalom, she should include speed disciplines in her program only exceptionally.
She won the opening race by 1.41 seconds ahead of the German Lena Dürrová. In the second race, Mauro Pini’s team had a similar start, but the point guard stopped her. Mikaela Shiffrin thus won her 89th victory in the “saint” and a record seventh triumph in Levi. However, the American was aware that Petra Vlhová was the best slalom skier over the weekend.
The Olympic champion in the most twisting discipline from Beijing 2022 opened the new slalom season famously. After the opening lap on Saturday, she led by 18 hundredths ahead of Dürrová, but in the second race she corrected her mistakes and watched the victory on the big screen at the finish by 1.41 seconds. Vlhova has never won the World Cup by such a high margin. The closest to that was in Zagreb 2020, when she overtook Shiffrin by 1.31 seconds. In the giant slalom, she holds the maximum in this direction from Aare 2022. At that time, she gave Marta Bassinová 1.24 s.
A similar difference as on Saturday could also be seen at Vlha’s name a day later. In the first round, the overall winner of the SP 2020/21 pushed the second Shiffrin away from her by 76 hundredths. She had a great start in the second run as well. In the first split, she was already 86 hundredths of a second faster, following her lead from the opening round, and in the second she jumped to 1.06 seconds. She did not make it to the next comparison time. She didn’t pass one of the gates according to the rules and ended up sad on the side of the slope after the so-called spike.
“What happened surprised us a little. That’s the sport. We have to raise our heads, especially Peter. We can be proud of what she performed during these two days. She went full speed and situations like this in slalom when you go full throttle can happen. We are sad, but we are already looking at the next race,” stated Mauro Pini after Sunday.
INJURY DID NOT LIMIT HER
Mikaela Shiffrin. Source: Imago
Sunday’s triumph of Mikaela Shiffrin extended her record number of victories in the World Cup to number 89. At the same time, with her seventh laurel in Levi, she once again broke away from Petra Vlhova and became the record holder of the Finnish center in this regard. It was also a certain satisfaction for the defender of the small slalom globe. Last week, she injured her left knee while falling during training in Levi and had no idea if she would even start the race.
“I went five hundred percent higher in the race than I could go in training this week. So it makes sense that it’s a little bit harder for me now.” the AP agency quoted Shiffrin after Saturday. “But when I skied, I felt good. I didn’t feel like my knee was restricting me in any way. I really didn’t even think about it.’
However, it was not 100% Mikaela Shiffrin in Levi. The injury took its toll on her arc timing. “Ten days have passed since the fall, so I don’t have this feeling fixed in my muscles at the moment. At some moments, I had the feeling that we were looking for each other with the skis, we were searching for the right line, for the right pressure. But a week ago, I underwent various examinations, we didn’t know if I would be able to compete at all. The fact that I was able to race is good and also a huge victory for me.”
Shiffrin’s performance improved on Sunday, although she was still significantly behind Vlhová. The difference of 76 hundredths after the initial run was abysmal considering the quality of both female competitors. Moreover, from the lead of 43 hundredths after the first round, she had only 18 hundredths left over Leona Popovičová. However, the Croatian performed the fastest second run, which was enough for her to take second place after Vlhová’s elimination. Shiffrin could not feel comfortable even when she watched the second performance of her Slovak rival on Sunday. And especially when there were bigger and bigger differences in the intermediate times. That is also why the defender of the overall victory in the World Cup spoke especially about Vlhová after the race.
“She was really unlucky. I reached the box, so I was already quite satisfied with the second place. After the last ten days, it was great. We continue step by step. If nothing else, it at least confirmed that I still have a good mindset to fight. After the aforementioned ten days, it was hard for me to even imagine that I would be racing, so this result means a lot to the whole team.”
AT LEAST ONE AND A HALF SECONDS
Mikaela Shiffrin. Source: SITA
It is quite impressive that since 2016 none other than Mikaela Shiffrinová and Petra Vlhová have been able to win the opening slaloms of the season in Levi. Together, they share thirteen victories, while the American woman has one more – seven. If it weren’t for Sunday’s bad luck with the point guard, the statistics would be the opposite.
“Petra showed a real championship level in slalom this weekend. She was far ahead of the others. From my point of view, she achieved victory and I was just very lucky to get it,” praised Vlhová, a 28-year-old from Vail. “It’s a little bittersweet. I am happy about the victory, but I have to highlight Petra. She would win Sunday’s triumph, probably by at least one and a half seconds. It was amazing to watch her ski these two days.”
The women have two downhills scheduled this weekend on the new Zermatt/Cervinia track. Technical disciplines are again on the program in “sveták” in almost two weeks. Giant slalom and slalom (November 25 and 26) will be hosted by Killington, USA. “Going home is always wonderful, but I don’t go to a home race under ideal circumstances.” added Shiffrin, referring to the injured knee.
2023-11-14 15:30:00
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