SOELDEN, Austria (Oct. 25) - Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) celebrated the 100 day mark to the World Championshps in her hometown by winning the first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom of her career in Soelden. Shiffrin took a narrow .09 second margin over Austria's Anna Fenninger, then came from behind after losing ground mid-course, scorching the bottom flats in the second run to tie Fenninger for the win. Austria's Eva-Maria Brem was third.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Mikaela Shiffrin took her first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom win, leading the first run and tying with Austria's Anna Fenninger in Soelden.
- Important Day: Shiffrin took the win on the 100th day out to the start of the FIS World Alpine Ski Championships in her hometown of Vail/Beaver Creek. It was her 10th World Cup win and first non-slalom victory.
- Soelden Success: Shiffrin became the fourth American to win in Soelden since the opener began in 1993. Lindsey Vonn won in 2011. Ted Ligety has won the last three years. And Bode Miller won in 2003 and 2004.
- Key to the win: In both runs, Shiffrin's bottom section was the turning point. In the second run she gave up ground through the steep section of the course, but gained it back on the flat lower section of the run heading into the finish.
- Crucial finish for Julia: Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) shook off a 47th starting slot to move up dramatically, finishing 17th. The finish boosted her to 31st in the World Cup Start List as she seeks to regain a top seed position. Megan McJames (Park City, UT) started 54th and finished 26th.
- Next up: The women head back to the USA for training at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper, while the men will run their GS on Sunday. Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) will be gunning towards a fourth straight victory in Soelden.
- Looking Ahead: The women race again with the season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland Nov. 15, then it's on to Aspen for a Nov. 29-30 giant slalom and slalom.
- TV: Universal Sports will televise Sunday's second run live at 7:30 a.m. EDT (USA fans note, time change in Europe tonight so only five hours differential to EDT).
QUOTES
Mikaela Shiffrin
It’s very helpful to know that I can win GS. I’ve thought it for so long and believed in myself, but today was the first day where between runs I was like, ‘Yeah, I really think I can do this and can get that top step.’ I really believed it.
I think the most difficult GS I’ve had was my first year when I came in last place when I was seven seconds out. That was tough and that got me motivated to try to get to the top step as soon as possible, so it’s nice it happened today. Right now I’m still working on GS, but I’ve come a long way so hopefully I can keep improving.
It feels really good to share first place with Ana, and also be on the podium with Eva, you know they finished the season so strong last season. I couldn’t really have a better podium. Fenninger was completely on top in GS last year. She was so fast and so fluid and so much fun to watch that I think it probably shouldn’t have gone any other way.
Julia Mancuso
The first run was challenging. I haven’t started 47 in a while, so it was a bit of a rough ride. Second run was a lot better. There were a couple of challenging turns that got the best of me. It was definitely smoother, and you just had to watch out for those couple of turns that were a little more rough. In general it was good, and I think my skiing’s going well. I think if the sun was out it would be a lot better."
I think my skiing is right there for GS so I can be happy and confident going into Aspen and hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the top 30 with that result. GS is definitely the building block for all of the events, so I’m focusing a lot on GS. It’s difficult to battle from the back but I think today I proved that it doesn’t matter. I’m happy about today and I’m looking forward to the next race.
RESULTS
Official Results
