Shiffrin wins again, claiming Courchevel GS by nearly a second

Mikaela Shiffrin won a World Cup Women’s Giant Slalom Tuesday in Courchevel, France. (Photo by Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)

At 22 years of age, EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin is now all alone in eighth place on the all-time women’s World Cup victory list with 34 wins after claiming a giant slalom by nearly a full second in Courchevel, France, Tuesday.

Shiffrin’s third win of the season clinched an Olympic berth for the 2018 Pyeongchange Winter Games, and made the 2014 slalom gold medalist a favorite to also claim a GS medal. Shiffrin also has wins in slalom and downhill this season.

The victory pushed Shiffrin into second place on the all-time victory list for Americans, breaking a tie with retired men’s superstar Bode Miller. Shiffrin now trails only Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, the all-time women’s leader with 78 wins.

Vonn, 33, had won six World Cup races at Shiffrin’s age.

Coming off a victory in a super-G in Val d’Isere, France, on Saturday, Vonn skipped Sunday’s race with a sore knee and also did not compete in Tuesday’s GS.

Shiffrin beat out GS world champion Tessa Worley of France by a combined two-run time of .99 seconds on Tuesday.

“I’ve been feeling better and better with my GS. But sometimes I get to the race and I get nervous,” Shiffrin told the Associated Press between runs of GS. “I got a little bit mad in the start gate and a little bit angry. It was aggressive, so it was a good mentality.”

Tuesday marked just the fifth GS win of Shiffrin’s career, with most of her victories coming in slalom.

“It was a bit scrappy at some points, but that was the tactic today,” Shiffrin said. “I tried to be really aggressive, and almost went off the course a couple times. It was a really straight second run, so I was like ‘OK, you gotta take advantage of that!’ I’m really excited that I fought for it!”

The defending overall World Cup Champion has totaled 621 points so far this season following Tuesday’s win. Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, who won the first two giant slalom races of the season, fell further behind in second following a 14th-place finish.

Shiffrin also moved into the overall giant slalom World Cup lead Tuesday with 225 points. Rebensburg is second with 218 points. She also leads the overall downhill and slalom World Cup standings.

“Right now, I’m really enjoying skiing every discipline,” Shiffrin said. “Normally, if I ski slalom, I want to ski GS, if I ski GS I want to ski downhill or super-G. So right now I’m really enjoying it when I’m doing it, and that’s a fun place to be.”

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail

David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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