SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Swiss skier Camille Rast constructed a giant lead and Mikaela Shiffrin was looming in third within the opening run of the ladies’s slalom on the Alpine world championships on Saturday.
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Rast completed 0.58 seconds forward of Katharina Liensberger of Austria, who received the slalom world title in 2021.
Shiffrin had 0.72 to make up within the second run later Saturday.
“I think that was some of the best skiing I’ve done lately,” stated the American star, who’s chasing her file sixteenth profession medal on the worlds.
Shiffrin received gold with American teammate Breezy Johnson within the group mixed on Tuesday however sat out the large slalom two days later. She felt not prepared but to race GS after recovering from an stomach damage sustained in a GS crash in Killington, Vermont in November.
“It was a giant problem to maintain up with the tempo, and for me particularly on the tip of the course,” Shiffrin said. “It’s like 15 seconds longer than anything I’ve skied since before Killington. I don’t have very much in my legs left.”
Shiffrin has won a medal in slalom, including four in gold, at all six previous world championships she competed in since 2013.
“What I saw from Camille, she was so light … taking on the full speed of the course,” Shiffrin said. “And that was really impressive for me, because it’s not easy to do that on this hill.”
Rast leads the slalom season standings after getting the first two World Cup wins of her career.
“I just did my thing and found my flow,” said Rast, who is competing at her fifth worlds but has yet to win a medal, though she won gold in slalom at the 2017 junior world championships.
“Nobody is out of the medal race yet, in slalom everything can happen,” she added. “The solar is there, it’s getting hotter, so the course will likely be a bit affected . It is nonetheless large open.”
Rast’s teammate Wendy Holdener was eight-tenths off the lead in fourth.
Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.55 behind in fifth. Moltzan received her first profession particular person medal by taking bronze in Thursday’s big slalom.
Zrinka Ljutic was one of many pre-race favorites after profitable three of the final 4 slaloms on the World Cup circuit however the Croatian completed 2.14 seconds behind.
Defending champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada did not end her run.
Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova did not race as she’s nonetheless recovering from knee surgical procedure a 12 months in the past. The Slovakian standout informed Austrian TV she had “no idea” when she may return to racing.
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