KILLINGTON, Vt. — Mikaela Shiffrin kept her winning streak at Killington alive.
“The crowd here is so amazing,” Shiffrin said of the throng of 10,000, who had their masks, cowbells and Team USA paraphernalia on full display. “I don’t want to take that for granted again because not getting it last year reminded me of how lucky we are to have these World Cup races here.”
Sunday brought slalom win No. 46 for the 26-year-old American, tying her with Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark for the most victories in a discipline. It was Shiffrin’s 71st World Cup win overall; she’s third on the all-time list behind Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82).
Reaching the top of the Killington podium wasn’t as easy for Shiffrin this time as it had been in past seasons. After Sunday’s first run, she was 0.20 seconds behind leader Petra Vlhova of Slovakia.
Shiffrin fit in a nap before her second run, refocused and — despite a bobble — came down with a sizable lead. The Slovakian then stumbled on her run, and her slim advantage turned into a 0.75-second deficit.
“I tried to push as much as I could, and at the end it was second place,” Vlhova said. “I am happy because it could be much worse.”
The win gave Shiffrin sole control of the overall World Cup season standings with 360 points to Vlhova’s 340.
The giant slalom competition scheduled for Saturday was scrapped because of high winds after just nine racers. Although Shiffrin was the slowest of those who made it down, the race’s cancellation was a disappointment for the strong American team.
At the only other giant slalom of the season, in Soelden, Austria, the Americans had four skiers in the top 23 — including Shiffrin in first. “The fastest skiers in the world are on my team,” Shiffrin said before the Killington event. “That’s not a feeling I’ve ever had before.”
When the circuit debuted here in 2016, it was the first time New England had hosted a World Cup race in decades, and the fans flocked. Nearly 20,000 people per day came to watch in 2019. This year, as the pandemic lingers, organizers required tickets to control attendance. Still, the weekend is always a homecoming of sorts for the U.S. team, including Shiffrin, who raced at Burke Mountain Academy in northern Vermont as a teen.
Shiffrin’s win came after she struggled with back pain earlier in the season that curtailed her training time. It also followed the death of her father, Jeff, last year.
“Probably the most important thing that I’ve learned is how much grief is — first of all it’s not linear at all and how exhausting it is,” Shiffrin told The Washington Post in October. “It takes all of your physical and mental and emotional energy in the beginning just to wake up and get out of bed.”
This was the first time she had raced in a World Cup in the United States since her father’s death. After the win, she said, “I feel more like myself, so I want to just keep building on that.”
The rest of the U.S. team had a mixed day. Five American women failed to finish the first run or qualify for the second run, but Paula Moltzan finished in an impressive seventh place.
“I was just motivated after not-amazing races in Levi to really put my best skiing out there on the hill in front of my [home] crowd and my family,” said Moltzan, referencing last weekend’s races in Levi, Finland. “It’s hard snow, but it’s not smooth. So it was definitely a battle the whole way down.”
Race weekend at Killington came roughly two months before the Winter Olympics begin in Beijing. Shiffrin is already a three-time Olympic medalist — including two golds. In China, she has a chance to become one of the most decorated female skiers in history.
For Moltzan, Beijing would be her first Olympics. “I’ve dreamed of going to the Olympics my whole life,” she said. “Today maybe was the first punch in my ticket.”
Shiffrin’s season may bring more wins — and potentially Olympic medals. But after the challenges of the past two years, she feels fortunate just to be on snow.
“You look outside and see the white; it’s really pretty. It’s beautiful,” she said in the lead-up to race weekend as a snowstorm pummeled Killington. “We’re lucky to be ski racing.”
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