Mikaela Shiffrin wins World Cup parallel slalom event
ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin won a World Cup event for the third time in eight days, beating Petra Vlhova in the head-to-head final of parallel slalom on Sunday.
Shiffrin trailed midway down the course after clipping a gate, but led her Slovakian opponent through the final three gates to win by 0.11 seconds.
The American star’s 48th career World Cup win — fourth on the women’s all-time list — was her third straight after back-to-back victories in the super-G speed discipline Saturday at St. Moritz and last Sunday at Lake Louise, Canada.
“I’m not unbeatable, no,” Shiffrin told Swiss broadcaster RTS after the race. “I was so excited after (Saturday’s win) it was a bit of a challenge to refocus.”
Still, Shiffrin does look unbeatable if she stays injury-free chasing a third straight season-long overall title. With 100 more World Cup points Sunday, she has more than double the total of her nearest rival, Michelle Gisin of Switzerland.
Shiffrin will skip the next World Cup meeting — a downhill and super-G at Val Gardena, Italy — to focus on her specialist slalom and giant slalom events on Dec. 21-22 at Courchevel, France.
Vlhova advanced to the final in one of the tightest races, winning her semifinal by 0.02 from three-time Olympic medalist Wendy Holdener of Switzerland.
Holdener took third place, winning the small final against Katharina Liensberger of Austria.
A new parallel racing format began with a morning qualifying race that sent the 32 fastest skiers into afternoon knockout rounds of head-to-head contests.
“This event is a big fight because you’re always next to somebody, and it’s like ‘Am I winning? Am I losing?'” said Shiffrin who wore the No. 1 bib as the fastest qualifier and consistently won in the red lane.
Shiffrin was first paired with the 32nd-fastest racer, Laurence St-Germain of Canada, in a two-leg race. The best combined time advanced to single-run contests in subsequent rounds.
In a round of 32 pairing of Pyeongchang Olympic champions, slalom gold medalist Frida Hansdotter — who was second-fastest behind Shiffrin in qualifying — was eliminated by Holdener, who barely advanced in the morning. Holdener helped Switzerland win the first Olympic title in mixed team parallel racing in February.
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