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Shiffrin crushes Killington course, claims first World Cup win this season

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November 26, 2017, 11:56 am

Eagle-Vail’s Mikaela Shiffrin dominated in the flat light and snow of Killington, Vermont, on Sunday, claiming her first World Cup win of the season and moving all alone into 9th position on the all-time victory list with 32 career wins.

us ski team logoShiffrin was first after the first run by a massive .89-second margin, and the Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion in slalom never faltered in the second run, claiming the win with a two-run time of 1 minute, 40.91 seconds. Her final margin of victory was a stunning 1.64 seconds.

The defending overall World Cup champion padded her current overall lead after finishing second in Saturday’s giant slalom at Killington. Earlier this season, Shiffrin also finished second in a slalom in Levi, Finland, and fifth in a GS in Soelden, Austria.

Born in Vail, Shiffrin attended Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont. She enjoyed a huge home-snow advantage with more than 34,000 ski-racing fans turning out over the weekend at Killington, where Shiffrin also won a World Cup slalom last season.

“I could hear these guys from the start today, both runs,” Shiffrin said of the East Coast fans, who turned out in droves. “It just made me smile … it just really carried me to the finish.”

Shiffrin needs just one more career win to tie Bode Miller for the second most World Cup wins by an American ski racer, behind Vail’s Lindsey Vonn at 77. Miller provided commentary for NBC during Sunday’s second run, and the six-time Olympic medalist seemed impressed with Shiffrin’s dominant display.

Vonn did not race at Killington over the weekend, and has just one start this season (at the GS opener in Soelden, Austria). But she is expected to star at the speed events at Lake Louise next weekend, where Shiffrin will also try to pick up some points in super-G.

While the women take on the Alberta, Canada course, the men’s circuit shifts from Lake Louise to Beaver Creek next weekend, with downhill, super-G and GS races Friday through Sunday, Dec. 1-3.