KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin posted the fastest time in the opening run of a women’s World Cup slalom Sunday, positioning herself for career win No. 90.
The American two-time Olympic champion pleased the home crowd with an aggressive run and clocked the fastest splits in three of the four sections on the Superstar course to lead Lena Duerr of Germany by 0.19 seconds.
Shiffrin called it “a really good run” but still saw room for improvement for the second leg later Sunday.
“I feel like I’m not playing with it as much as I want to, but it’s really good, solid technique, it’s really solid power,” she said.
“There's somehow another percentage that I’m trying to push and trying to get back, but I think that was a really, really good first run.”
Petra Vlhova was 0.28 seconds behind in third. The Slovakian skier had won the first slalom of the season in Finland two weeks ago and held a clear lead over Shiffrin in the second race the next day, but then straddled a gate and handed victory to the American.
That was the first win of the season for Shiffrin, who is from Colorado. Her career totals of 54 wins in slalom and 89 wins overall are both World Cup records across genders.
Wendy Holdener and Leona Popova also finished within a half-second of the lead, but Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan in sixth had already 1.21 seconds to make up in the final run.
Slalom world champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada trailed by 1.30 in eighth position.
Shiffrin has won five of the previous six slaloms at the annual World Cup weekend on the East Coast. Holdener and Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden shared the victory last year when Shiffrin placed fifth.
Lara Gut-Behrami, who won the GS on the same course Saturday, does not compete in the slalom discipline. Shiffrin ended that race in third and remained in the lead of the overall World Cup standings. The American is aiming for a women's record-equaling sixth overall title this season.
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