Not known for exuberant victory celebrations, two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin on Tuesday let out a loud scream after crossing the finish line in a night slalom.
In the last slalom before next month’s world championships, Shiffrin ended a 13-month victory drought in her strongest discipline and earned her 100th FIS Alpine Ski World Cup podium.
Shiffrin said that the win felt like a fresh start.
Photo: AP
“I felt, like, inspired, I just felt alive. I was pushing. It’s hard to explain. I wish I could explain,” said the American, who was away from the circuit for much of last year because of the death of her father and a back injury.
Racing in light snowfall under the lights, Shiffrin sealed a record 44th slalom victory with a time of 1 minute, 47.92 seconds, holding off Katharina Liensberger of Austria by 0.19 seconds.
“It feels a little bit like a new beginning,” Shiffrin said. “Most of my wins and my best races are behind me. It’s already happened, and, at 25, it’s weird to think the bulk of my best racing in my career is already over.”
“You can’t really move forward until you stop trying to go back, and I’m having a difficult time with that,” she said. “It’s hard not to want that, to just want life to be like it was before Feb. 2. I’m probably going to be struggling with that for a while, but I think that tonight was a pretty big step.”
The result earned her a 68th World Cup victory, leaving her 14 victories behind fellow American Lindsey Vonn, who holds the record for most wins by a woman.
Those milestones were not on her mind, though, she said.
“This slope has kind of tripped me up the last several years. I just wanted to ski strong,” Shiffrin said. “It was really fun.”
SWEEP THE LEG: Poirier, determined to best McGregor, after losing to him in 2014, used low calf kicks to throw ‘Notorious’ off his stand-up game, before dropping him American underdog Dustin Poirier yesterday shook up the world of mixed martial arts, beating up the legs of Irish superstar Conor McGregor before knocking him out at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. “I’m happy, but I’m not surprised. I put in the work,” Poirier said, after the referee stepped in after 2 minutes, 32 seconds of the second round to save McGregor from further damage, after he was dropped by a fierce combination of punches. The 32-year-old Poirier was ranked second in the flyweight division going into the fight, but still rated a heavy underdog by bookmakers to beat his fourth-ranked opponent,
Badminton’s world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying yesterday was handed a tough draw at Thailand’s World Tour Finals, as she was bracketed with home favorite Ratchanok Intanon and Indian star P.V. Sindhu. Tai, former world champion Ratchanok and Olympic silver-medalist Sindhu were grouped with Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in Group B for the round-robin stage of the biosecure tournament in Bangkok. Tai faces Sindhu today. The delayed season finale from last year is the third behind-closed-doors event in three weeks in the Thai capital as badminton resumes after months of near-inactivity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanish top seed Carolina Marin, seeking a hat-trick of wins in Bangkok,
HOLDING STEADY: Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying pushed past Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to advance to a quarter-finals match against world No. 10 Michelle Li Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and Wang Tzu-wei yesterday defeated their respective opponents in the second round of the Toyota Thailand Open, setting them up to face each other today in the quarter-finals. In an early match, world No. 12 Wang took 45 minutes to defeat Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long 21-13, 21-11. Last week, the world No. 8 ousted Wang from the Yonex tournament before defeating Chou in the semi-finals. Chou, world No. 2, defeated France’s Brice Leverdez in 48 minutes 21-19, 21-16. In other men’s singles matches, Indonesia’s fifth seed Anthony Ginting suffered an unexpected defeat to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yiu, who moved into
MARIN REMATCH: Tai Tzu-ying saved six game points in her semi-final against Ratchanok Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying reached the final of badminton’s Thailand Open yesterday with a three-set win over Ratchanok Intanon, setting up a rematch against Carolina Marin. Tai won 12-21, 21-12, 23-21 in 59 minutes to set up her second final against Marin in two weeks, while Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the final in the men’s doubles. However, Chou Tien-chen was eliminated in the semi-finals of the men’s singles. Tai saved six game points in the win against her Thai opponent Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record against the Taiwanese world No. 1. Tai’s best streak was a
RSS