Page 19 - Aruba Today

SPORTS A19
Tuesday 16 February 2016

Shiffrin wins WC slalom in first race after 2 months out

DANIELLA MATAR Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States, right, celebrates with second placed France’s Nastasia Noens after winning an alpine ski,
Associated Press women’s World Cup slalom, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzer-
land (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin Associated Press
is definitely back.
Two perfect runs saw the the second-most wins by difficult conditions. had really bad visibility. I Slovakia, who was 10th.
American win a women’s
World Cup slalom by almost an American woman. She Three of the top 10 after had OK visibility, I was strug- Shiffrin, who has won the
a half-second on Monday
in her first race after two turns 21 next month. the first run did not finish: Mi- gling to see but at least I past three titles, is 245 points
months out with injury. Leading after the first run, chelle Gisin, Petra Vlhova could see a bit. I’m relieved behind Hansdotter. There
Crossing the line smiling af- Shiffrin finished 0.45 sec- and Erin Mielzynski. Lila La- with the luck of having bet- are only two slalom races
ter her second run, Shiffrin onds faster than Nastasia panja of the United States ter visibility. left along with a parallel
turned to look at the timings
board then put her head in Noens of France and 0.50 also skied out. “I was at the top, looking event this month in Stock-
her hands at the realization
she had won. ahead of Marie-Michele “That was a tough race, at the start and I was think- holm that counts in the sla-
“I came in blind a little bit,”
she said. “I knew my train- Gagnon of Canada as sev- tough for all the girls,” Shif- ing, ‘Oh it doesn’t look too lom standings.
ing skiing was some of the
best I was doing but I just eral of her rivals struggled in frin said. “Some of the girls bad.’ Then I closed my eyes “The slalom globe’s out.
wasn’t sure. It was kind of
close your eyes and go,
see what happens at the
end of the run.
“I didn’t know what to ex-
pect from the rest of the
girls. I was just watching on
television and wasn’t sure
of the pace. I could see it
but it’s different from being
there.”
It was Shiffrin’s first race
since tearing a ligament in
her right knee in Decem-
ber. The Olympic and world
slalom champion started
skiing again only two weeks
ago. Shiffrin won two sla-
loms in Aspen, Colorado,
and both by big margins,
before the training mishap
in Sweden. She has won
her last six slaloms stretch-
ing back to last season.
This was Shiffrin’s 18th win on
the circuit, moving her level
with Tamara McKinney for

for about a minute, visual- I’m going to focus on GS a

izing the course, and then little bit now, try to see how
when I opened them again quickly I can get back, see
I was like, ‘Hey, where did how many points I can get
the slope go?’” overall,” Shiffrin said.

World Cup slalom leader Shiffrin is targeting the su-

Frida Hansdotter finished per G and super combined

sixth, 5.89 behind Shiffrin. in Soldeu at the end of the

The Swede has 545 points, month, but added, “That

99 more than second-best depends how training
Veronika Velez-Zuzulova of goes.”q