Shiffrin extends slalom streak in Austria, but slams 'terrifying' course conditions

SEMMERING, Austria — After dominating the first four World Cup slaloms this season, Mikaela Shiffrin has only just managed to keep her winning streak intact ahead of the 2026 Olympics.

Not that Sunday night's slalom in Austria, the final event of the calendar year, made the American ski star particularly happy.

Shiffrin came from half a second behind in the first run to edge out world champion Camille Rast of Switzerland, but then slammed race conditions on the Panorama course.

"I have to say this: It was not safe to ski for the girls," Shiffrin told Austrian TV. "For me, don't question it, starting in bib 4 on the first run, it's not a problem, right. But for the women who were starting in bib 13,15, 18, in the 60s, this is not OK."

The recent mild weather affected the course, and organizers attempted to harden its surface by injecting water and salt beforehand. However, the surface broke on an increasing number of spots during the afternoon run that began at 2:15 pm.

Conditions then slightly improved for the evening session three-and-a-half hours later, when temperatures dropped.

"It was a very challenging and distracting day," Shiffrin said. "My understanding is that there were no big injuries, but the way the surface was breaking ... The second run was a bit better, for sure, but I am frustrated with how that went for these women."

Only 40 out of the 77 starters completed the first session and a deficit of 5.94 seconds was still enough to qualify for the final run.

"It should be a good show, but it should be something that the athletes want to do and are not terrified on the start, looking at the first two turns with these enormous holes. There is a way to do it better, and that's that," Shiffrin said.

Doing it better is certainly what Shiffrin did in her final run.

The American was fourth, more than half a second off the pace, in the opening session on the rapidly deteriorating course, but posted the fastest time in the evening to beat first-run leader Rast, who finished 0.09 seconds behind. Italian-born prodigy Lara Colturi, 19, who competes for Albania, was 0.57 back in third.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure was on. And oh, I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said in a course-side interview after her record-extending 106th career win.

"It didn't feel, like, good. I didn't expect to come down with the green light. It's been one of those days, it's like: 'Let's refocus and be positive and try'."

Five wins in a row to begin a season matches Shiffrin's personal best start from 2018-19.

She won the final race of last season and then dominated the first four slaloms of the current Olympic campaign, winning them by an average margin of 1.5 seconds, before adding Sunday's narrow win.

In the first run, Shiffrin was one-hundredth of a second ahead of Rast halfway down the course, but lost considerable time on the Swiss racer in the bottom section.

"It's a pretty tough one. I think, probably, a little bit like overskiing," said Shiffrin, who was the 2014 Olympic champion and holds the women's World Cup record of 69 slalom victories.

She extended her lead over second-placed Colturi to 220 points in the slalom standings. The World Cup schedule includes three more slaloms in January before the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, and then two in March. A race win is worth 100 points.

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, who won the race last season and went on to take the slalom Crystal Globe, was a massive 3.75 seconds behind in eighth.

Shiffrin's teammate Paula Moltzan was seventh after the first run, but straddled a gate in the second, a day after she crashed and fell on her back and head in a giant slalom on the same hill. That race was won by Austria's Julia Scheib, who does not usually compete in slalom.

The women's World Cup travels to Slovenia for a giant and slalom in Kranjska Gora this weekend.

Agencies Via Xinhua