Mikaela Shiffrin Runs Second In First Slalom World Cup Of The Season

Mikaela Shiffrin competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Slalom on Nov. 20, 2021 in Levi, Finland. 

She didn’t get another reindeer, but Mikaela Shiffrin did push through back pain to finish second in the first world cup slalom race of the season in Levi, Finland, on Saturday.

Not surprisingly, it was defending world cup champion Petra Vlhova who was just a hair faster than Shiffrin to win the event. The two have now each won the slalom opener in Levi four times with another slalom race scheduled for Sunday. 

Shiffrin, who’ll be looking to make her third Olympic team this winter and add to her two gold medals, won the season’s first giant slalom in October for her 70th world cup victory. But she’s been hampered by a back injury that limited her training at Copper Mountain, Colorado, the past few weeks.
Vlhova finished the first run in 52.15 seconds, giving her a small lead over Shiffrin’s time of 52.26 seconds. Midway through the second run Vlhova had a lead of just .05 seconds but then made room on the bottom half of the run to finish with a total time of 1:46.19, .31 seconds ahead of Shiffrin. 
It was last year in Levi that Shiffrin made her return to the world cup circuit following the death of her father in February 2020 and back issues that kept her from the season-opening giant slalom. She finished second and fifth in those races. 

But she still has another chance this weekend to tie Ingemar Stenmark’s record for the most victories in a single discipline. Stenmark has 46, while Shiffrin sits at 45. She could also still “win” another reindeer, as is tradition at the races in Levi. Although the reindeer continue to live in Finnish Lapland, the winners get to name one of their own. So far Shiffrin has named Rudolph (2013), Sven (2016), Mr. Gru (2018) and Ingemar (2019). In addition to the four wins, Shiffrin now has eight podium finishes in Levi in her career.