Mikaela Shiffrin, the snow queen says 103

Mikaela Shiffrin also dominates the scene in Gurgl. After seeding her rivals in Levi in her World Cup season debut between the jointed poles, the American repeated herself on the Kirchenkar in the Tyrolean resort, seizing victory number 103 of her career on the highest circuit, the 66th in slalom.

If in the first run she seemed to control the situation, in the second run Shiffrin opened the throttle wide, setting the best partial time again to dig a gap of 1″23 on Lara Colturi, who is thus confirmed on the second step of the podium, just as in Levi and just as twelve months ago, precisely in Gurgl. The podium is then completed by Switzerland’s Camille Rast who wins the home duel for third place with teammate Wendy Holdener, paired with her at the halfway point. Paula Moltzan and Katharina Truppe then complete the top 6.

Double-faced race for Lara Della Mea who closes 18th at 4″12: responsive and perfectly in tune with the course in the first run (11th time), more in trouble to find the right rhythm in the second, an element that makes her lose seven positions compared to what she did in the morning. “I couldn’t find the fluency I had in the first run,” were the words of the 26-year-old from Carnia, Italy. “I went a little long at the entrance of the wall. I struggled to maintain the rhythm, without finding feeling with the course. I take away some positive things, I have to keep skiing like this and try to complete more heats of the same level, which I have kind of missed so far.”

Earlier in the day, Giorgia Collomb had narrowly missed qualifying for the second run, 31st at 3″65 and excluded by a single hundredth of a second; just behind, a gap of 3″93 for Alice Pazzaglia with Annette Belfront 4″79 behind, had ended prematurely instead the run of Beatrice Sola, Emilia Mondinelli and Giulia Valleriani.

Mikaela Shiffrin thus takes the lead both in the overall standings (250 points against Colturi’s 196 and Moltzan’s 175) and in the specialty ranking, which she leads with full points (200) over Colturi (160)

The appointment with the Women’s World Cup is now set for Saturday, November 28, with the giant slalom at Copper Mountain (United States), followed the next day by the third slalom of the season.