New winter, new win for Mikaela Shiffrin

Mikaela Shiffrin pictured here in in Copper Mountain, CO in 2021 is now among the alpine racers required to wear an air-bag vest and next season cut-resistant long underwear on the world cup curcuit. Photo: Max Hall // U.S. Ski and Snowboard

This marks Shiffrin's 89th World Cup win

FINLAND — Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team  athlete and winningest alpine skier of all time Mikaela Shiffrin won Sunday’s slalom in Levi, Finland. This marks Shiffrin’s 89th World Cup win, along with her 54th slalom victory, 139th World Cup podium, and seventh win in Levi — the most slalom wins at a single World Cup venue in history.

“I am really happy with the victory,” said Shiffrin to the U.S. Ski Team. “It proves that I have a good mindset to still fight so this means a lot.”

The conditions were solid and consistent once again for all racers. Shiffrin immediately took the lead with clean and aggressive skiing, but Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, Saturday’s winner, blazed down to overtake the leaderboard with more than a half-second advantage on run one.

On the second run, a groove began to form towards the end of the flip, but Shiffrin skied smart and found herself in first. Vlhova was on track for another great day, gaining speed as she skied down the second run. She got caught toward the middle of her run, however, and ultimately skied out.

“Petra really did a masterclass in slalom this weekend and in my mind she earned this victory but I did earn a podium so I am lucky and very happy with the victory,” said Shiffrin.

Shiffrin took the victory, with Croatia’s Leona Popovic second and Germany’s Lean Duerr in third to round out the podium.

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team teammate Paula Moltzan was having a good top section on her first run until she got held up in a hairpin and did not finish. AJ Hurt finished the first run in 53, Lila Lapanja in 58 and Dasha Romanov in 59. They did not qualify for a second run. Zoe Zimmermann did not finish the first run.

The tech women will now look to the Stifel Killington Cup on home soil for their next World Cup race, Nov. 25-26.

The men’s speed team was scheduled to race Sunday in Zermatt-Cervinia, Switzerland but the race was canceled due to weather.