COURCHEVEL, France — Mikaela Shiffrin completed tenth in a World Cup slalom race on her damage comeback on Thursday, with Croatian racer Zrinka Ljutic successful in model beneath floodlights at Courchevel.
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The 21-year-old Ljutic has received three of the previous 4 slaloms. She was 1.26 seconds forward of Sweden’s Sara Hector and 1.28 away from Germany’s Lena Duerr.
Shiffrin was 2.04 seconds adrift. Chasing a record-extending a centesimal World Cup win, the 29-year-old American was fifth after the primary run on the Stade Emile Allais course however struggled along with her timing on each runs.
“I didn’t come into this race expecting that I was going to win,” Shiffrin stated. ”I’ve to be at my prime, prime stage. Now we construct from right here.”
Shiffrin crashed on Nov. 30 in a large slalom in Killington, Vermont, and was injured sliding down the mountain. A few weeks later, the two-time Olympic gold medalist had stomach surgical procedure to scrub out a puncture wound.
Shiffrin stated earlier than this race that she was prioritizing her restoration forward of chasing the magic 100.
“It was a very important step in my recovery to see how I’m stacking up with the top skiers in the world, and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing,” Shiffrin stated. “Also before the world championships it was so important to get this start.”
The worlds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria are subsequent month, the place Shiffrin shall be eyeing medals in big slalom and slalom.
“For certain I need to goal the GS and slalom and the whole lot actually is dependent upon the subsequent 10 days till these races, the way it goes with coaching,” she said. “I’m catching up to the fastest in the world so I have a lot of work to do.”
A massive 62 of Shiffrin’s 99 World Cup wins have been in slalom. She cupped her hands and then waved to the crowd after finishing her second run.
No other skier, male or female, has won more than 86 World Cup races.
Having overtaken Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, she needed a podium finish to equal Stenmark’s record of 155 World Cup podiums.
She was not quite ready to aim for that.
“It felt challenging and the top women they are are skiing amazing,” Shiffrin said. “I am so happy to be back competing with them, hopefully I get faster in the next weeks.”
Chasing a seventh straight win in slaloms, Shiffrin was the sixth racer to start at shortly after 5 p.m. local time and with the slightly fading light.
Shiffrin was a bit low on her skis but made up some time on the bottom section, finishing .87 seconds behind first-leg leader Ljutic, who crossed the line in 51.88 seconds.
“I want to watch the video from the first run. It was like a little bit of my timing or rhythm to catch the track in the right way,” Shiffrin said. “I had some really good turns and some not fast turns.”
A smiling Shiffrin walked over to hug Ljutic as the young Croat sat watching from the leader’s chair. Ljutic had to pinch herself after winning a such a dominant race.
“I’m living the dream now so don’t wake me up,” she stated.
Shiffrin’s been in Ljutic’s place so many instances earlier than, however her expectations have been extra reasonable after two months out.
Swiss racer Wendy Holdener was second after the primary run however she misplaced stability and missed a gate early in her second run.
Austrian Katharina Liensberger positioned fourth forward of Switzerland’s Camille Rast, who received the earlier slalom in Flachau.
Rast leads the slalom standings with 450 factors forward of Ljutic on 409 and with Shiffrin in ninth on 226.
Italian Federica Brignone leads the World Cup standings.
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