It’s Another Second-Place Finish For Shiffrin As Levi Slalom Weekend Wraps Up
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by Karen Price
Mikaela Shiffrin competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Slalom on Nov. 21, 2021 in Levi, Finland.
Ingemar Stenmark’s record will have to wait.
Mikaela Shiffrin went into this weekend’s pair of slalom races in Levi, Finland, with the chance to tie and break Stenmark’s record for most wins in a world cup discipline, but for the second day in a row she was second to Petra Vlhova.
Shiffrin is sitting at 45 slalom wins while Stenmark, the iconic Swedish skier, won 46 giant slaloms during the 1970s and ’80s. Vlhova also pulled one ahead of Shiffrin in wins in Levi with five.
For the second day in a row, Vlhova led after the first run with Shiffrin just a hair behind in second. But any hopes of Shiffrin making up ground on the second evaporated when she came around a gate off balance and finished with a combined time of 1:45.69. Vlhova, of Slovakia, finished .47 seconds faster with a time of 1:45.22 and, in the tradition of races at Levi, “won” another reindeer, which will not travel home with her but which she gets to name.
The first slalom weekend certainly set the stage for what should be a season-long rivalry that carries into the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in February. Shiffrin won gold in slalom in 2014 and was fourth in 2018, and has six world cup slalom titles to her name. Vlhova, meanwhile, won her first world cup slalom title in 2020 and the overall crystal globe in 2021. She has competed twice at the Olympics but is still looking for her first medal.
Shiffrin, 26, didn’t quite come into Levi in the form she’d hoped. She’s battled back problems for some time now, and had to limit her training leading up to the slalom season opener because of it. She does already have a world cup victory to her name this season, however, with a win in the season opener in the giant slalom.
The Vail, Colorado, native has a total of 70 world cup victories to go along with two Olympic gold medals and one silver. She trails only Stenmark (86) and fellow American Lindsey Vonn (82) for total world cup wins.
Paula Moltzan also picked up some world cup slalom points Sunday, finishing 24th.
