Mikaela Shiffrin keeps on raising the bar in Women's World Cup ski racing. This was her 15th win of 2018 as she became the first racer, male or female to win 15 races in a year. Petra Vlhova almost managed to make it to wins in Semmering for herself with a second place while Wendy Holdener profited from Frida Hansdotter crashing out on the second run. Katharine Liensberger and katherina Truppe gave the Austrian crowd something to cheer in the New Year with fourth and fifth.
Since January 1, 2018 Mikaela Shiffrin has won fifteen World Cup races across Slalom (8), Giant Slalom (2), Super G (2), City Events (1) and Parallel Slalom (1). A truly incredible haul.
Shiffrin lead the first run in the Slalom in Semmering by almost half a second from the winner of the Giant Slalom the day before, Petra Vlhova. Frida Hansdotter was third with Wendy Holdener sitting in fourth. With another large gap between the top thirty (4.19 seconds), Shiffrin really is in a class of her own at the moment. She does have off days, the Giant Slalom the day before saw her slid from a first run lead to fifth.
With the young Austrians using the home support to ski fast, first Katherina Truppe and then Katherina Liensberger both posted fast times to take the lead but it was a devastatingly fast second run by Wendy Holdener that put the pressure on the top three still to go.
Frida Hansdotter was looking good before she made a mistake coming into a verticale and then exited it on her inside. Holdener was guaranteed a podium.
When Vlhova put herself in the pole position to make it two wins in two days, the pressure of 15 wins in a year rested on the shoulders of Shiffrin.
The shoulders may be young but she is made of tough stuff and while she lost time on the run to Vlhova and Holdener, she had enough to take the win!
Alex Tilley and her coach decided to rest up and not race in the light of her recent set backs.
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