Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin moved a step closer to history this weekend by making it 11 slalom victories in a row in the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Skiing World Cup.
The American, the Sochi 2014 champion, was triumphant in Sestriere in Italy to add to her two victories in the discipline already this season.
Twenty-one-year-old Shiffrin’s winning streak includes the first two slalom races of last season before a knee injury sidelined her for two months.
She won three more races following her return and is just one victory away from equaling Vreni Schneider’s record of 12 straight World Cup slalom wins, with the Swiss skier achieving the feat between 1988 and 1990.
Shiffrin was quickest down the hill on both runs and won with a combined time of 1min 37.80sec.
Second went to Veronika Velez Zuzulova of Slovakia who was timed at 1:38.89, with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland taking bronze in 1:39.01.
It means the American leads the overall World Cup standings with 498 points, in front of Swiss defending champion Lara Gut who has 393.
Shiffrin has the maximum 300 points to top the slalom standings.
In the men’s World Cup in the French resort of Val d’Isère, defending overall slalom champion Henrik Kristoffersen made up for lost time with a victory in his first race in the discipline this season.
The Norwegian Olympic bronze medalist was not on the start-list for the first slalom event of the campaign, which took place in Levi in Finland last month.
This was reportedly due to a sponsorship dispute with his National Federation, but he returned in France in fine style, clocking a combined time of 1:44.54 for victory.
He managed the second quickest first run of 51.67 as France’s Alexis Pinturault set the early pace before skiing out second time around.
Kristoffersen was then the swiftest down on the second run in 52.87.
That meant Russian Alexander Khoroshilov slipped to third overall with a combined 1:46.46, as Austria’s defending overall champion Marcel Hirscher clinched silver on 1:45.29.
“It’s a really good feeling,” said Kristoffersen.
“With all that’s happened in the last month and a half, too, this is really good.
“I hope you can expect me to ski good.
“As long as I can do that, I’m happy.
“I’m a little bit relieved.
“It’s nice to slap some plastic again.”
Hirscher leads the overall standings with 440 points as he bids for a sixth title in a row, and he also heads the slalom list with a score of 180.
The men’s World Cup circuit will now head to Val Gardena in Italy, with super-G on December 16 and downhill on December 17.
The women will compete in Val d’Isère, with Alpine Combined starting proceedings on December 16.
Downhill will take place on December 17 with super-G on December 18.
By Dan Palmer
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.