SEMMERING – Mikaela Shiffrin took a big lead in the opening run of a women’s World Cup slalom on Thursday, positioning herself for a third win in three days and 80th overall.
After back-to-back victories in giant slalom, Shiffrin was more than seven-tenths of a second faster than her closest challenger, Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson.
Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan and Lena Dürr of Germany were the only others within a second at the top.
Shiffrin’s biggest competitors in slalom, Petra Vlhová and Wendy Holdener, were just outside the one-second mark.
“I felt really good. I was shooting, so that was a very, very good run and to be honest, it was just a pleasure to ski,” Shiffrin said. “But it’s difficult and I think it can get pretty bumpy on the second so it’s certainly not over yet.”
With a win, Shiffrin would fall two wins short of Lindsey Vonn’s women’s record of 82 World Cup wins. Shiffrin could then follow up on her former teammate’s performance next week when two slaloms are scheduled in Zagreb, Croatia.
Only Swedish grandmaster Ingemar Stenmark, at 86, won more races than Vonn and Shiffrin.
At 49 in slalom, Shiffrin already holds the overall record for most wins in a single event.
In addition to his usual schedule of a GS and a slalom, this time Semmering hosted a giant slalom that was canceled in another Austrian resort, Sölden, in October.
Shiffrin won all three events when the resort near the capital Vienna held races for three consecutive days in December 2016.
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