LEVI, Finland — Mikaela Shiffrin opened the Olympic slalom season in convincing fashion on Saturday, dominating the World Cup event in Finnish Lapland for a record 102nd career win.
The American star held a comfortable lead in the first run by more than a second, set the fastest time again in the final run and won the race by 1.66 seconds over second-place Lara Colturi.
“It's a good feeling for sure, it was so nice to race today. I felt really strong in both runs,” Shiffrin said, adding that she didn't want to be too cautious in protecting her big lead.
“I just felt like, 'Oh, don't screw it up, like it'll be awkward or something.' But at the end of the day, if you try your best, you can’t screw it up.”
Kolturi, an Italian-born prodigy who plays for Albania, achieved her best result in her career. Colturi turned 19 on Saturday.
All-rounder Emma Eicher finished third, 2.59 back, to secure her first podium finish in a technical race. The German, who turned 22 last Thursday, won the downhill and super-G in March last year.
Shiffrin's teammate Paula Molzahn, who finished second to Austrian winner Julia Scheib in the season-opening giant slalom three weeks ago, was 2.46 behind the leader in 19th place but moved up to fourth, which she shared with Eicher's teammate Lena Duerr.
“I knew I had to change gears to find a lot of time. I'm really happy with my second run on the skis, I felt like I was able to make some of my best turns,” said Molzahn, who posted the second-fastest run time.
Shiffrin and Molzahn are now ranked 1-2 overall after two competitions; The winner of the first race, Scheib, does not compete in the slalom.
“Mikaela has put absolute practice into skiing Levi. She continues to impress everyone with her skiing,” Molzahn added.
World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Ljutic from Croatia was fourth after the first run and dropped to sixth place.
Shiffrin laid the groundwork for her 65th slalom victory with an aggressive first run.
“It was the best run I could have done, it was kind of perfect,” Shiffrin said after her first run, calling it a “great feeling” to repeat some of her best times in training.
“I've been focusing a lot on giant slalom all summer training, so I haven't had many slalom days,” said the American, who finished fourth in the general slalom in October.
“But when I was training for slalom, it was really important to show maximum quality and maximum intensity in every run.”
Recovering from a scary GS accident a year ago, Shiffrin announced before the season that she plans to trim her schedule to slalom and GS, and possibly a super-G, before traveling to the Cortina Winter Olympics in Milan in February.
Shiffrin won Olympic gold in slalom in 2014 and GS four years later.
Nine of Shiffrin's record 102 World Cup wins came in the traditional season-opening slalom in Lapland, where the winner receives a reindeer prize. Shiffrin said Saturday that she doesn't yet have a name for the latest addition to her herd, adding that she will talk about it on her social media.
No skier other than Shiffrin or Slovakia's Petra Vlhova has won the race in 14 races since overall champion Tina Maze won in 2014.
Vlhova, the 2022 Olympic slalom champion, is still recovering from a lingering knee injury she suffered in January 2024.
The men's slalom on the same course is scheduled for Sunday. Next weekend the women will head to Austria for another slalom.
