Mikaela Shiffrin was on her way to World Cup victory in 98 but the leader from the first giant slalom race in Sölden did not even reach the podium and finished fifth in the alpine premiere three weeks ago.
But today, when the season’s first slalom competition was decided in Finnish Levi, she was superior. In the first run, she was six tenths faster than the German Lena Dürr, a lead she defended in the second run. The margin of victory down to Austria’s Katharina Liensberger was in the end a whopping 79 hundredths.
“Something to work on”
But she doesn’t want to call it a revenge after the premiere.
– No! It’s such different things, slalom and giant slalom. And I still have a lot to work on mentally in giant slalom after last season, she told SVT Sport after the competition, and continued:
– I didn’t go giant slalom at all at the end of last season, so Sölden was my first giant slalom competition since January or something like that.
– But I think that today’s competition will help my giant slalom as well, as I feel that I can handle the nerves and the pressure.
“Actually be quite calm”
The winner of the Levis World Cup slalom receives, among other things, a reindeer as a prize. Shiffrin has won at Levi eight times, and thus won his eighth pure today, feeding it with a familiar hand from the podium.
You look pretty comfortable with them now?
– Hahaha! I’m getting better. I know they are quite driven by food, so if you have some grass in your hand they are quite happy. This one was actually quite calm compared to the others, the calves are usually very scared all the time, but this one I would say was quite calm.
Watch the clip above to find out if Shiffrin remembers the names of all her reindeer.