GURGL, Austria — Mikaela Shiffrin is taking the hunt for her one hundredth profession World Cup victory to North America.
The American ski star may even get the one win she wants for the milestone in what is sort of a house race for her in Killington, Vermont, which hosts an enormous slalom and a slalom subsequent weekend.
“I guess it’s not impossible, but so many things have to go right,” Shiffrin stated Saturday within the Austrian Alps after incomes her record-extending 99th victory — which was this season’s second slalom.
Shiffrin, who’s from Colorado, honed her abilities at Burke Mountain Academy, near Killington.
“From the outside it looks easy, or it looks like it’s supposed to happen this way. But it takes, like even today, so much energy to bring out my top skiing, so it’s certainly not easy,” the American stated about approaching the landmark win on house snow.
After the occasions in Killington, the 16-day North American portion of the World Cup continues with two large slaloms in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, and a super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“I guess there is a bit of pressure around it, but I’ll try to ignore that,” stated Shiffrin, who additionally gained the primary slalom of the season in Levi, Finland per week in the past.
“Anyway, if it happens, it’s wonderful. If it doesn’t happen, kind of nothing to cry about in the grand scheme. But I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd.”
No different skier, male or feminine, has gained greater than 86 World Cup races. Shiffrin set one of the best mark when she overtook Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark in March 2023.
Shiffrin has triumphed within the final six slaloms she competed in, together with all 4 since her return from a knee harm following a downhill crash in January.
On Saturday, the two-time Olympic champion held on to her first-run result in beat Italian prodigy Lara Colturi, who begins for Albania, by 0.55 seconds and Swiss skier Camille Rast by 0.57. They each bought their first profession podium outcome.
Within the first run, Shiffrin wasn’t clear going into the steep of the Kirchenkar course however gained time on all rivals with a near-flawless part towards the end.
“It’s a pretty strange surface, like cold and dry. It’s hard to be clean on the skis. So, I was feeling a little bit funky on some spots,” Shiffrin stated.
“But in the end, I kept pushing forward, just stayed on top of it and pushed to the finish. I find it to be really challenging on this condition to find the right setup to feel clean and to feel like you can unleash the skis.”
Shiffrin acknowledged to being “really nervous at the top” earlier than the beginning of her second run.
“I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel with the surface. It was getting darker. Sometimes when I am not sure about the feeling under my feet, then I take too much time to make the turn,” she stated.
“I could hear all the women going down and their teams were cheering, and that always means they had a really good run. And it was getting darker,” stated Shiffrin, including she didn’t “think it’s happening today.”
Shiffrin initially prolonged her result in greater than seven-tenths of a second and solely misplaced fractions of that during the last two sections.
“It feels really satisfying to have a really great run down this slope. What a wonderful day,” she stated.
Sharing the rostrum with two younger rivals incomes their first top-three outcome made Shiffrin suppose again to when she bought her first profession podium — at a slalom at one other Austrian venue, Lienz, in December 2011.
“It was incredible, with Marlies (Raich) and Tina (Maze),” recalled Shiffrin, who began that race with bib No. 40 however completed third.
“It was such a special feeling, like ‘Oh my God, I am here, and I should be here, and I belong here.’ It’s just in the beginning of your career. And the future, there is no limit. That’s just such a wonderful feeling.”
Swiss skier Wendy Holdener, who was second after the opening run, dropped to fourth, and Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan trailed by 1.10 seconds in sixth.
Olympic champion Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin’s greatest rival in slalom, hasn’t returned to racing but after present process knee surgical procedure final season.
Gurgl was a brand new venue on the ladies’s World Cup, after it staged a males’s race final season. The resort within the Austrian Alps is only a 15-kilometer drive from Soelden, the place the normal season opener happened 4 weeks in the past.
The boys race a slalom on the identical hill on Sunday.
