The Superstar slope continues to be home, sweet home for skiing’s biggest superstar.
After Sunday’s commanding 0.33-second victory, Mikaela Shiffrin has won six of the seven World Cup slaloms held at Killington Resort.
“It’s amazing to do this, especially here, with the home crowd,” said the Edwards skier, who honed her skills nearby at the Burke Mountain Academy as a teenager.
“It’s just such a good vibe and there’s a little extra intensity because we want this to be good for you guys to watch. I hope it was a good show.”
The World Cup’s all-time winningest Alpine skier nabbed career-victory No. 90 on the second day of the Killington World Cup weekend — she was third in the giant slalom on Saturday. It was also her 55th-career World Cup slalom win and second victory of the 2023-2024 season. Shiffrin was handed the Nov. 12 slalom in Levi, Finland when Petra Vlhova threw away a one-second lead by straddling a gate and posting a second-run DNF. On Sunday, Vlhova finished second, but Shiffrin — who had the fastest first and second runs — didn’t need any good fortune to claim the top step this time. The American’s two-run time on the 200-meter drop was 1 minute, 42.02 seconds.
After the first run, she had a 0.19-second lead on Lena Duerr of Germany and 0.28-second advantage on Vlhova.
“I feel like I’m not playing with it as much as I want to, but it’s really good, solid technique, it’s really solid power,” Shiffrin said after the first run.
“There’s somehow another percentage that I’m trying to push and trying to get back, but I think that was a really, really good first run.”
An aggressive second run from Vlhova, the defending Olympic champion in the event, put pressure on Shiffrin, the last athlete left in the starting gate. The 28-year-old lost half of her first-run lead by the first split, but gradually gained it back throughout the course.
After a quiet 2022-2023 season, Vlhova has looked sharp in the first month of World Cup competition, claiming the opening slalom in Levi on Nov. 11 and leading the Nov. 12 event before her DNF. On Sunday, the rivals were once again well clear of the rest of the field. Wendy Holdener would round out the podium, but finished a full 1.04 seconds back from Vlhova, who was 0.33 off of Shiffrin’s pace.
For the second day in a row, Paula Moltzan finished in eighth place as the second American. Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna Allie Resnick finished 49th in the first run, failing to qualify for a second.
Shiffrin leads both the slalom and overall cup standings and is fourth in the giant slalom. She’ll have a chance to move up in the latter category next weekend, as the World Cup continues with a pair of giant slaloms in Tremblant, Canada on Dec. 2-3.