American Mikaela Shiffrin clinched a record-extending 98th World Cup victory in the first slalom of the ski season in Finland.
The two-time Olympic champion led by 0.60 seconds after the opening run in Levi and held on to beat Austria’s Katharina Liensberger by 0.79 seconds in gloomy conditions.
Germany’s Lena Duerr was third, 0.83 seconds behind the winner.
“Amazing way to start the slalom season, I’m super happy,” said Shiffrin, 29.
“[It was] a little bumpy. I was getting twisted sometimes but then kept fighting.”
She admitted “it wasn’t the perfect tempo”, but Shiffrin was happy with her performance “in conditions that were not easy”.
She won both slaloms at the end of last season after her return from a knee injury following a downhill crash in January to claim an eighth World Cup season title.
Shiffrin also led the season-opening giant slalom in Austria three weeks ago, but struggled in her second run to finish fifth overall.
She will return to action in Gurgl, Austria, on Saturday 23 November for another slalom, before competition on three consecutive weekends in the United States and Canada.
Swiss
