Shiffrin scores win in Courchevel to extend overall WC lead; Goggia claims downhill title
COURCHEVEL, France — Mikaela Shiffrin increased her lead over Petra Vlhová in a close race for the overall title by winning the downhill on Wednesday at the World Cup Finals.
Shiffrin had barely raced downhill this season — two World Cup events in December and then last month’s Beijing Olympics. Her best result was 18th.
The American put down a clean run on the new Eclipse course to earn the victory and 100 World Cup points. Vlhová finished out of the scoring places in 16th.
After seeing her time in the finish area, Shiffrin put her right hand to her mouth in disbelief. Her 74th career victory in the World Cup was only her third in downhill.
Shiffrin’s boyfriend, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, watched nearby and punched the air with both fists before greeting her with a hug and kiss.
Shiffrin is looking for a fourth career overall title. She now leads Vlhová by 156 points with only three races left this week.
She will be favored to pad her lead Thursday — and maybe even secure the overall title — when the other speed discipline, the super-G, is raced.
“I don’t really feel like I’m supposed to be winning downhills,” she reflected following her victory. She continued, “Actually, I feel like I’m supposed to not be winning downhills, so it worked out amazing today, and I think I did a really good job with my coaches and the whole team here, they’re all here and fully committed to helping me learn this track and execute it the best possible way…and giving me exactly what I needed to ski the most confident. Even then, I’m not a downhill skier right now. I have great pieces, but it takes a lot of thought, a lot of work, a lot of effort…some of the things that come naturally to other women are not coming naturally to me. So I have to remind myself of little things that no one else is having to think about.”
“Good job! A good day,” Kilde told Shiffrin shortly after he had clinched the season-long World Cup downhill title by placing fourth in the men’s race.
The women’s title went to Sofia Goggia despite her 12th-place finish. Goggia’s closest rival, Olympic champion Corinne Suter, finished only 19th. It was the Italian’s third career downhill trophy.
The course seemed to suit Shiffrin. It used the flatter, more technical lower sections of the Eclipse hill than the longer course raced by the men, proving to be a balanced race with few sections to find extra speed or make mistakes.
Shiffrin did just enough to finish 0.10 seconds faster than Christine Scheyer and Joana Haehlen, who tied for second place. Even Lara Gut-Behrami in fifth place was only 0.16 seconds behind.
Vlhová was only 0.78 slower than Shiffrin on the 2.3-kilometer (1.4-mile) course but that left her outside the points. Only the top 15 finishers score at the World Cup Finals.
This is a developing story, stay tuned for more.
The Associated Press and the US Ski Team press office contributed to this report.
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