Ali Nullmeyer 6th in women's slalom for top Canadian honours at World Cup Finals
Fellow 2022 Olympian Amelia Smart 9th; Slokar a surprise winner over Vlhova, Shiffrin
Ali Nullmeyer posted her third top-six slalom finish in a little over two months, placing sixth to lead Canada's four-member contingent at the final women's World Cup event of the season on Saturday in Courchevel, France.
The Toronto skier stopped the clock in a two-run time of one minute 37.81 seconds behind surprising World Cup Finals winner Andrej Slokar (1:36.54) of Slovakia.
Nullmeyer was a personal-best fifth on Jan. 4 in Zagreb, Croatia and sixth just five days later in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. In February, the 23-year-old finished 21st among 88 competitors in her Olympic debut in Beijing.
"Skiing at the Olympics and at World Cups definitely prepares me for all future competitions," Nullmeyer told The Middlebury Campus newspaper in Vermont, where she is a fully enrolled student at Middlebury College. "The more I race at that level, the more I can calm my nerves at all races which is helpful."
Amelia Smart of Invermere, B.C., also finished inside the top 10 on Saturday, clocking 1:38.10 for ninth of 19 finishers after placing 27th in Beijing. Laurence St-Germain of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges was 11th in 1:38.48, four spots ahead of Erin Mielzynski (1:38.72) of Collingwood, Ont.
WATCH | Nullmeyer, Smart crack top 10 for Canada:
Slokar, 24, stepped up with a career-best result in the sunny French Alps after American Mikaela Shiffrin captured the overall World Cup title and Petra Vlhova took the Olympic and World Cup titles.
Slokar finished 0.48 seconds ahead of Germany's Lena Durr, who let another first-run lead slip as she did at the Beijing Olympics last month.
World junior champ 5th
Vlhova, who won five of the previous eight World Cup slalom races, was 0.81 back in third.
Shiffrin had been fifth-fastest in the morning then dropped to finish eighth, 1.48 back. Only Slokar among the contenders found their speed on a second-run surface that degraded under a warming sun.
The 18-year-old world junior champion, Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia, also excelled in the afternoon to finish fifth.
Slokar had won a parallel racing on the World Cup circuit in November, though never finished better than fourth in slalom during her career.
WATCH | Victorious Slokar edges Durr by 0.48 seconds:
Her fifth-place finish at the Olympics, just 0.10 out of the medals, also hinted at her potential.
After the race, Vlhova was presented with the small Crystal Globe trophy for topping the slalom standings. She also won in 2020.
Shiffrin will be presented with her fourth giant Crystal Globe as overall champion on Sunday, after the giant slalom that ends the women's season.
She and Vlhova are in a four-way contest for the giant slalom discipline title with Olympic champion Sara Hector and two-time world champion Tessa Worley.
With files from The Associated Press
