Shiffrin golden in World Cup giant slalom for 2nd straight day, Canada's Grenier 5th
American earns 79th career win, leaving her 3 behind Lindsey Vonn for women's record
Everyone in ski racing seems to be counting Mikaela Shiffrin's World Cup wins. Except for Mikaela Shiffrin herself.
The four-time overall champion won a gripping duel with Swiss rival Lara Gut-Behrami in a giant slalom Wednesday to earn career victory No. 79.
Shiffrin also won Tuesday's GS on the same course and is now three World Cup wins short of the women's record held by Lindsey Vonn.
"What does it mean to have 79 victories? I can't answer that question," the American said. "Because it's been 12 or 13 years of racing, and good races and bad races, and highs and lows. The last three years have been really difficult."
Beyond Vonn, only Swedish skiing great Ingemar Stenmark (86) has more World Cup wins.
For Shiffrin, 79 wins, or any other number, cannot properly summarize her entire World Cup career, which started in 2011.
Shiffrin could even get one closer to Vonn's best mark before the end of 2022 as the three-day series at Semmering will be concluded with a night slalom Thursday. She won all three events the previous time the resort near the capital Vienna hosted races on three consecutive days, in December 2016.
On Wednesday, Shiffrin trailed leader Gut-Behrami by 0.22 seconds after the opening leg but the pair swapped places after a thrilling final run in which both made mistakes, with the American racer ultimately beating her rival by 0.10.
"It was hard, it was so dark, some really big bumps, I tried to push," Shiffrin said.
Marta Bassino, who leads the GS standings, was 0.47 behind in third, followed by Italian teammate Federica Brignone in fourth.
Valérie Grenier, the lone Canadian to advance past the first run, placed fifth at 2:04.36. One day earlier, the St. Isidore, Ont., native was disqualified after leaving the start house early while in podium contention after placing fourth in her opening run.
The 26-year-old earned some redemption Wednesday by posting the fastest second-run time to jump up from 12th.
"It's a really great feeling to get a good result today," said Grenier. "That second run was amazing. I focused on my technical skiing and kept to my plan. It felt great to sit in the leader's chair for a little while, even if I knew I wasn't likely to stay there."
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It was Shiffrin's 16th win in GS, putting her in joint second place on the all-time winners list alongside Annemarie Moser-Pröll and Tessa Worley. Only Vreni Schneider won more giant slaloms with 20.
The win also stretched Shiffrin's lead in the overall standings to 305 points over Sofia Goggia. The Italian speed specialist is not competing in Semmering.
Shiffrin and Gut-Behrami set up their duel by building a big lead over the rest of the field in the opening run, when the Swiss skier looked flawless on the icy Panorama course.
With the gates set in an uncharacteristically straight line, Gut-Behrami and Shiffrin completed the course in less than a minute, about five seconds faster than Tuesday.
Shiffrin led Gut-Behrami's time throughout her run but could not match the Swiss skier's pace at the flat bottom section.
"It's quite a straight course, a really fast course, and it has bumps in it," Shiffrin said. "It's kind of hard to ski something with so little turn and I'm really happy that I was able to do it that well."
In the second leg with more turns, no racer had a clean run. Starting last as the first-run leader, Gut-Behrami lost her advantage over Shiffrin at the first split time, but she gained time again in sections where her rival struggled.
With files from CBC Sports
