US skier Shiffrin overcomes cold to take big lead in 1st run of World Cup giant slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin overcame a cold to take a lead of 0.86 seconds in the opening leg of women’s World Cup giant slalom on Saturday.
Wearing bib 7, the overall champion avoided mistakes in an aggressive run and finished the Podkoren course in 55.08 seconds to beat the then-leader, world GS champion Tessa Worley of France.
„It’s not a very long course so even being a little bit sick I have enough energy for that,“ the American said. „Actually, a lot of the girls have been or are sick. I think maybe nobody is racing at a 100 percent today.“
The U. S. ski team said Shiffrin had been „battling a cold this week“ but traveled across the Italian border on Friday to train in Tarvisio.
„I am really happy with my skiing. I was loose and really aggressive. That’s really exciting for me,“ Shiffrin said. „I just tried to go out aggressive and it worked that run.“
Shiffrin, who triumphed in five of the last six World Cup events, can become the first female skier to win the first three races of a calendar year since Vreni Schneider of Switzerland achieved the feat 29 years ago.
Shiffrin has won 38 World Cups in total, including five in GS.
Third-place Stephanie Brunner of Austria had 1.30 seconds to make up in the final run, while Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, who leads the discipline standings, was 1.67 behind in sixth.
On a course that held up well despite mild temperatures and rain in the last few days, Federica Brignone was 1.64 behind in fifth. The Italian won the previous GS, in Lienz eight days ago.
Coming back from knee surgery this season, two-time overall champion Anna Veith of Austria finished 32nd and failed to qualify for the second run.
This weekend’s races have been moved from Maribor because of a lack of snow and warm weather in the North-Eastern Slovenian resort.
