Petra Vlhova finally got her first victory in the Alpine World Cup season after winning the night slalom in Flachau (Austria). For her, this is the third success in the Austrian resort, after her victories in 2019 and 2020.
The Slovakian Alpine skier used the fact that her coach Mauro Pini had lined up the course in the first heat and set the best time in it. That gave her a 0.17-second lead over Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) before the second descent. In it, Petra Vlhova gave the second-best result, but that was enough for her to win, with a final lead of 0.43 sec ahead of Shifrin.
Mikaela Shiffrin today had the first chance to win her 83rd victory in the World Cup, with which she would become the sole leader of the all-time women’s ranking. The American skier currently shares the top spot with compatriot Lindsey Vonn. Only the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who finished his career with 86 victories, has more World Cup victories than the two.
The third place on the podium in Flachau went to Lena Duerr (Germany), who finished 0.85 sec behind Petra Vlhova. The German was fourth after the first run, but gained one place in the second thanks to the elimination of Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic, who was in third place after the first heat. Wendy Holdener (Switzerland) and Paula Moltzan (USA) finished fourth and fifth today, 1.54 and 2.15 sec behind the winner, respectively.
With her first victory of the season, Petra Vlhova secured second place in the general standings for the World Cup, in which, with an asset of 796 points. She is 399 points behind the leader Mikaela Shiffrin. Third with 569 points is Wendy Holdener.
In the ranking in the slalom discipline, Mikaela Shiffrin leads with 605 points, Wendy Holdener is second with a passive of 135 points, and the trio is closed by today’s winner Petra Vlhova, who is only 10 points behind the Swiss.
The Women’s World Cup continues this weekend with starts in the speed disciplines in Saint Anton am Arlberg (Austria). The program there foresees the fifth downhill of the season on Saturday, and the third super-giant slalom is set for Sunday. These will be the first starts in the speed disciplines since nearly a month ago, when the races were held in Saint Moritz (Switzerland).
The next start in the technical disciplines will be in exactly two weeks, when the giant slalom will be held in Kronplatz (Italy). Before that, in addition to the speed races in Saint Anton, there will also be those in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy), where between January 20 and 22 there will be two super-giant slaloms and a downhill at the Olympia delle Tofane.