Shiffrin gains sweet revenge

American Mikaela Shiffrin hit back from her opening FIS World Cup slalom defeat to gain sweet revenge over rival Petra Vlhova on home soil in Killington.

The reigning FIS World Cup overall and slalom champion finished second to the Slovak in the season opener at Levi in Finland but dominated the next round.

She carved her way down the mountain in the first run to record a scintillating time of 49.57 seconds that gave her a 0.89 second advantage over Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener with Vlhova 1.45 seconds back in fifth.

Vlhova, who finished fifth in slalom last season, upped her game in the second run to post 51.53 seconds which put her in the lead ahead of Shiffrin’s final run.

The 22-year-old did not coast down the tricky course to victory, though, as she powered her way to a second-run best of 51.43 seconds for a staggering 1.64-second victory margin.

She joins Vlhova on 180 points in the slalom standings, but holds an impressive 84-point overall lead over Vlhova heading into the Lake Louise super G race on December 3.

Shiffrin, who was second in Saturday’s giant slalom to German Viktoria Rebensburg, revealed: “I wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to have the same mentality as the first run: Be smart, but let it fly. I had that feeling on both runs today.”

The next FIS World Cup ladies race is the Lake Louise downhill on December 1.