Olympic gold medalist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia overtook Mikaela Shiffrin to win a World Cup slalom in Courchevel, France, on Thursday.
Vlhova earned her 30th World Cup win (21st in slalom) by 24 hundredths over Shiffrin combining times from two runs under a mix of snow and rain. Shiffrin led Vlhova by 17 hundredths after the first run, an advantage that slowly evaporated in her second run.
“It’s not possible to beat her unless I’m 100%,” Shiffrin said.
Vlhova was the lone skier within one second of Shiffrin in the first run. Shiffrin was the lone skier within two seconds of Vlhova after two runs.
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Vlhova denied Shiffrin a record-extending 92nd World Cup win and what would have been Shiffrin’s first winning streak in World Cup slaloms in four years.
Vlhova won the first slalom this season, and Shiffrin won the next two leading into Courchevel. There are 11 total World Cup slaloms on this season’s schedule through March.
Vlhova won the most slaloms on the circuit in 2020 and 2021. But Shiffrin has nine World Cup slalom wins between 2022 and 2023 to Vlhova’s six, though Vlhova won the biggest title of that stretch at last year’s Olympics.
Shiffrin earned her 79th career World Cup slalom podium, two shy of Swede Ingemar Stenmark’s record for podiums in any single Alpine skiing event. Last March, Shiffrin broke Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup wins across all Alpine events.
Thursday’s race lacked two-time Olympic slalom medalist Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, who is out at least two months after ankle surgery last week, and world champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada, who has a less serious ankle injury.
The women’s Alpine World Cup continues next week with a giant slalom and slalom in Lienz, Austria, live on Peacock.
PODIUM #️⃣1️⃣4️⃣4️⃣ FOR @MikaelaShiffrin ‼️
— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) December 21, 2023
Despite challenging conditions at @courchevel, Mikaela did it again…breaking through the fog and grabbing second place in tonight’s slalom!#stifelusskiteam pic.twitter.com/BX3nVdkh2W