Legendary American skier Mikaela Shiffrin will venture farther in her career as she pursues a record-tying 100th World Cup victory at Killington, Vermont.
After her back-to-back triumphs in Finland and Austria, Shiffrin put herself up to achieve the feat on home snow. She started the season needing three wins to hit the century milestone on the World Cup circuit. This weekend in Killington, the two-time Olympic gold medallist will have two opportunities to achieve the century mark: a giant slalom on Saturday and a slalom on a Sunday.
The athlete has won the slalom competition in six of the seven years it has been happening at Killington, giving Shiffrin an impressive record. She said: “I guess there’s a bit of pressure around it, but I’ll try to ignore that… If it happens, it’s wonderful. If it doesn’t happen, nothing to cry about in the grand scheme. I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd.”
Shiffrin has never won in her six races, although she has made it to the giant slalom podium three times in Killington.
Moreover, at the season opener in Austria last month, Shiffrin won the first run in the only giant slalom race so far this season. However, she only managed the 27th-fastest time in the second run, which caused her to fall back to fifth position.
Shiffrin had a hiatus after having a knee injury following her high-speed crash in January at the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo. However, she did not display any indications of rust since her return. She successfully finished the last season with two slalom victories and added two more this month.
Source: CNA