The United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin secured her fourth International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Skiing Slalom World Cup title after claiming a second win in as many days on home snow in Squaw Valley.
Fresh from triumphing in yesterday’s women’s giant slalom, the 21-year-old clocked an overall time of 1min 39.48sec for an 11th victory of the season.
Czech Republic’s Sarka Strachova was 1.03 seconds back in second and Austria’s Bernadette Schild a further 0.05 off the pace in third.
Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener had led Shiffrin by 0.02 seconds after posting a first-run time of 47.44sec, but she skied out on the final gates of the course.
“[The slalom title] was my first, highest goal so it’s pretty important,” Shiffrin, the Olympic and world slalom champion, said.
“But I tried not to think about it in the first run today, or at all today, and now I can think about that a bit more, I’m quite excited.
“I made recoveries and came out with the win, and I think Wendy was going for it.
“I know how it feels to lose it on the last two gates and that absolutely sucks.”
Slovakia’s Veronika Velez Zuzulova, Shiffrin’s closest challenger in the slalom World Cup standings, skied out on the first run to guarantee the American the discipline title.
A total of 245 points separate the pair prior to the final race in Aspen in Colorado next Saturday (March 18).
Shiffrin now leads the overall World Cup standings by 378 points from Slovenia’s Ilka Stuhec.
With only four races left and a maximum of 400 points up for grabs, her lead is nearly insurmountable.
The 31-time World Cup race winner could seal her first overall title in the Aspen women’s downhill, which is scheduled for Wednesday (March 15).
By Daniel Etchells
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.