Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova edged the US’ Mikaela Shiffrin, making her return from COVID-19, for a hat-trick of wins in the women’s FIS Alpine Ski World Cup slalom in Zagreb on Tuesday.
Vlhova made the most of wearing the No. 1 bib on a piste made difficult because of high temperatures, finishing 0.64 seconds ahead of Shiffrin on the first run.
Shiffrin, who is placed atop the overall World Cup standings, knows the Croatian slope well, having won the Snow Queen Trophy there four times previously.
Photo: AP
The 26-year-old, who announced last week that she had contracted COVID-19 — spending a period of time in isolation that saw her miss two races in Lienz, Austria — put everything into the second run.
“To ski so well after so much time sat in a room without skiing is good,” she said. “Some athletes find it hard to come back, I feel lucky I’ve been able to come back quickly.”
She temporarily topped the combined times before Vlhova kept her nerve to clock a winning 1 minute, 56.99 seconds for her 24th World Cup victory and 16th in the slalom. It was also the Slovakian’s fourth victory in five slalom races this season.
Shiffrin placed second, 0.50 seconds adrift, with Austria’s world slalom champion Katharina Liensberger, who also contracted COVID-19 last month, rounding out the podium.
“I just wanted to focus on my skiing to be as clean as possible around the gates... I’m very happy to win here again,” said Vlhova, whose rivalry with Shiffrin has seen the pair win 37 of the 40 World Cup slalom races held over the past four seasons.
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