Olympic champ Shiffrin dominates slalom for 40th career win
Competitors say American skier's success is 'frustrating, but good for the sport'
Shortly after winning her 40th career World Cup race on Sunday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin drew praise from one of her main rivals for "taking the sport to another level."
Beaten by 1.64 seconds in slalom on the Podkoren course, Frida Hansdotter had mixed feelings about the American's dominance.
"It's frustrating, but it is also good for the sport," said the Swede, the only skier other than Shiffrin to win the season-long World Cup slalom title in the past five years.
Shiffrin has won 20 of the last 25 slaloms she competed in, and finished on the podium in four of the other five races. Her 29 slalom wins in total leaves her six short of the record set by Austria's Marlies Schild.
"She is super fast," Hansdotter said. "All of us want to ski faster than her but she is on another level. We need to train harder and ski faster."
Guelph, Ont., resident Erin Mielzynski finished 5.39 seconds behind the winner in 15th place, while Laurence St-Germain of St. Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., and Roni Remme of Collingwood, Ont., did not qualify for the final run.
Olympic champ feeling confident
The Olympic slalom champion certainly was fast while taking a 1.47-second lead in Sunday's opening leg, which Shiffrin called "maybe the best run of slalom I have ever done in a race."
It was the fourth straight slalom race where Shiffrin held a first-run lead of more than a second, a huge margin in a sport often decided by hundredths of a second.
"I let it go down the hill and I am really, really happy with my skiing that run," said Shiffrin, who also triumphed in Saturday's giant slalom on the same course. "I am always looking to do the skiing that I do in training. That feels really good, it's confident, it's flowing. The surface is incredible and froze overnight so it's just so much fun to ski."
Shiffrin posted the third-fastest time in the final leg and beat Hansdotter once again, while Wendy Holdener was 1.87 behind in third for the Swiss skier's 13nd career slalom podium without winning — a World Cup record.
"Sometimes it's frustrating but it is still a good fight," Holdener said.
The result put the American level with Sweden great Ingemar Stenmark for the number of World Cup victories before turning 23.
Only Annemarie Moser-Proell won more races (41) at that age, and Shiffrin can match the Austrian great's record at a night slalom in Flachau on Tuesday.