Shiffrin ‘riding wave’ to 4th successive Slalom win

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) is so dominant on Slalom skis right now, not even she knows quite what is happening. Four Audi FIS women’s World Cup Slalom races this season, four wins, four times a margin of victory of more than a second.  

Nothing it seems can stop the Atomic star on her short skis. Not the sport’s newest all-round superstar Emma Aicher (GER/Head). Not a tough Courchevel test that caught out many of the rest of the best on Tuesday evening. And not even a wild second run that had Shiffrin mouthing “Wowee” in the finish area.

Her rivals no doubt share that sense of wonder, with Switzerland’s Camille Rast (Head) the nearest challenger this time, just ahead of Aicher in third (+1.71 seconds). But in truth both were aeons back in a sport habitually decided by fractions of a heartbeat.

‘Tough second run’

The course and the conditions in the snowy French Alps did their best to test the sport’s all-time most successful World Cup Slalom skier. While those out in front of her did their best to unsettle her too, although not always in the way they intended.

The reigning Slalom World Cup champion and winner in Courchevel 12 months ago, Zrinka Ljutic (CRO/Atomic) was one of three big-name skiers to fail to make it to the finish line before Shiffrin had even started.

Out of sorts in her favoured discipline, Ljutic pulled up after struggling through the steep pitch in her opening run, while Lara Colturi (ALB/Blizzard) – Shiffrin’s closest challenger to date –  caught an early straddle to bring her streak of three consecutive podium places to a shuddering end. Rounding off the trio of first run disasters, was Austria’s big hope, Katharina Liensberger (AUT/Rossignol). The Cortina D’Ampezzo 2021 Slalom world champion lost her edge at the same spot that caught Ljutic out.

None of this bothered Shiffrin who brought all of her customary aggression and precision to an almost flawless first run that delivered a chunky 0.83-second advantage.

Her second effort seemed to be in sharp contrast, with a series of mistakes eliciting gasps from the mesmerised French galleries. As if just to prove however, that she is operating in a different sphere, none cost the USA skier time.

“It’s a wonder I made it to the finish this time, but (I) just fight,” Shiffrin said, smiling. “That was a tough second run, it was so quick and some turns had big tracks and some were so good. It was a little bit hard to predict where it would be bumpy and where it was good to fly. Sometimes I had trouble to stay on the course but to stay dynamic worked fine.”

‘Fight till the end’

By contrast, Rast – who was second after run one – found her run two errors costly. Especially a big one at the start of the pitch.

“When something like this happens we always keep pushing and I want to fight till the end,” Rast explained. “I don’t like to give up, I never give up and that’s why I keep pushing and when I saw the greenlight at the finishing line I was really so happy because after the big mistake I was like ‘Oh no, no, everything is over’.”

A pre-season injury has been hampering the Swiss star who pushed Ljutic all the way to the 2024/25 Globe. But two podiums and three other top-five finishes in her past six World Cup races signal a return to form, even if she is still battling her body.

‘Trust the training’

Aicher is a skier for whom good days are becoming the norm. In fact, just two days after securing a brilliant Downhill win in St Mortiz, the 22-year-old proved she is an undoubted threat in all four disciplines.

Her immaculate technique, allied to a silky smooth touch meant the German was able to recover from errors that seemed inevitable on the aggressive, gripey Courchevel snow. Not a luxury that her teammate Lena Duerr (GER/Head) could call upon, as she became the 23^rd and final skier to fail to make it to the finish line, having sat third at the halfway point.

“I’m actually really proud I could pull this off. Speed skiing on Sunday and then today, I am just happy with the skiing and that I can build on it in every discipline,” Aicher said. “I’ve trained a lot in the pre-season and had a lot of Slalom days but I had a day off after the speed last week. I just had to trust the training, trust myself to go and enjoy.”

While the young German will head to nearby Val D’Isere for the weekend’s speed races, it is rest time for Shiffrin, as she lines up her objectives for the rest of what is already looking like another record-setting season.

“I have some goals I would like to accomplish with GS and it’s going to keep taking time. I want to just keep improving or get repetition to the Slalom level,” Shiffrin said, before adding, “And then try to fit some Super G days in there just to feel more comfortable.”