Shiffrin crashes in Killington, Camille Rast on the podium

Mikaela Shiffrin missed her first chance to break the magical mark of 100 World Cup victories in the giant slalom in Killington. The American woman who was leading at half time was eliminated in the second run. Camille Rast comes third when Sara Hector wins.

Everything was set up perfectly for Mikaela Shiffrin to break the barrier of 100 wins in front of an enthusiastic and loud home crowd. The 29-year-old had distanced herself from the competition by 0.32 seconds or more in the first run. Now she was the last rider standing in the final.

Although she no longer made her turns around the gates as purposefully and confidently as she had in the morning, Shiffrin was still almost two tenths ahead of Sara Hector at the second intermediate time. However, the decisive mistake followed on the steep slope, which caused her to fall comparatively violently into the safety net at the edge of the piste – drama instead of an anniversary victory for high-flyer Shiffrin.

The victory, the sixth in the World Cup, went to Sara Hector. The 32-year-old Swede triumphed on the American east coast with a lead of 0.54 seconds over Croatian Zrinka Ljutic.

Camille Rast, a Swiss woman, completed the podium. The 25-year-old from Valais lost a good second to the giant slalom Olympic champion Hector and remained just a hundredth ahead of the fourth-ranked Norwegian Thea Louise Stjernesund.

Rast, who was third on the podium for the first time in the World Cup at the slalom in Gurgl, Austria, a week ago, doubled that at the first opportunity. Previously, the French-speaking Swiss woman had never finished better than 7th in a World Cup giant slalom (end of December 2021 in Lienz).

Holdener and Gut-Behrami in top 15

The second best Swiss woman was Wendy Holdener, who showed a strong performance, especially in the second round, and improved by ten positions to 12th place. The woman from Schwyz, who most recently finished fourth in the slalom in Gurgl, was last ranked better in a giant slalom in December 2022 – in tenth place in Sestriere.

Lara Gut-Behrami (13th) lined up immediately behind Holdener. The Ticino native, who has won twice in Killington in the last two years, fell four positions back in the second run of her first race of the season. Five weeks ago at the World Cup opener in Sölden, Gut-Behrami had to skip the start at short notice because she didn’t feel 100 percent fit due to knee problems and the flu.

From a Swiss perspective, there were also World Cup points for Simone Wild (22nd) and Michelle Gisin (25th).

Haaser prevents ÖSV debacle

For Austria, however, it was almost a debacle in Killington. Only Ricarda Haaser achieved 8th place. Julia Scheib – the third-place finisher from Sölden –, Stephanie Brunner and Katharina Liensberger were eliminated in the first run. Four other drivers missed out on making it into the top 30 with their morning performance.

The third slalom of the season will take place on the American east coast on Sunday. Normally, the big favorite would be the World Cup record winner Mikaela Shiffrin, who previously won in Levi and Gurgl this winter. In Killington, where the Women’s World Cup has been held since 2016, she has been victorious in six of the seven races so far in her specialist discipline. However, it remained unclear on Saturday whether Shiffrin would even start the slalom after her violent fall in the giant slalom. The first slalom run starts at 4 p.m. Swiss time. (abu/sda)