After Levi, the next Women's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom will take place on Saturday the 23rd on the Kirchenkar slope in Gurgl, Tirol, Austria, a brand new venue for the women's skiers.
In Levi, Mikaela Shiffrin confirmed her status as the unrivaled favorite with a dominant victory to claim her 98th Alpine Skiing World Cup win. Shiffrin was once again in a class of her own and looks unbeatable in the Finnish ski resort. It isn't easy to see anyone challenging the American ace without the presence of Petra Vlhova. Until last season, Vlhova's injury in Jasna, Mikaela Shiffrin, and Petra Vlhová had recorded a 1-2 finish in 24 Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom events. Shiffrin finished ahead of Vlhová 14 times, and it was the other way around 10 times.
Since the start of the 2022-2023 season Mikaela Shiffrin (14), Petra Vlhová (5), Wendy Holdener (2), Anna Swenn Larsson (2), and Lena Dürr (1) were the five women to claim a World Cup Slalom victory.
In Soldeu, in the first Slalom without Petra Vlhova and Mikaela Shiffrin, Anna Swenn Larsson imposed her experience to win. Before Soldeu, the last time with a podium in Slalom at the World Cup without Vlhova or Shiffrin was in Killington on November 27, 2022, when Holdener and Swenn-Larsson shared first place.
After sharing the top of the podium with Anna Swenn Larsson in Killington, Wendy Holdener won in Sestriere her second race in the discipline beating Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova, second and third respectively.
On January 29, 2023, Lena Dürr won her first World Cup Slalom race at Spindleruv Mlyn, beating Mikaela Shiffrin by a mere 0.06 seconds. Croatian Zrinka Ljutic took third place.
The greatest Alpine skier of all time Mikaela Shiffrin celebrated her 98th Alpine World Cup victory in Levi last Saturday. Of her impressive 98 World Cup victories, 61 have come in Slalom.
Shiffrin's eight Slalom victories in Levi (2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, twice in 2022, 2023, and 2024) is a new record for the number of victories in this discipline at one specific venue. Only Lindsey Vonn (14 Downhill in Lake Louise) has recorded more than seven World Cup wins in a specific event at a single resort among Women's skiers.
Mikaela Shiffrin has won 8 Slalom Crystal Globes (2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024), tying her with Lindsey Vonn (Downhill) and Ingemar Stenmark (Slalom and Giant Slalom), who also hold eight discipline globes. Marcel Hirscher won the Men's Overall World Cup Crystal Globe eight times. Shiffrin has won 16 Crystal Globes (5 Overall, 8 in Slalom, 2 in Giant Slalom, and 1 in Super-G).
The 29-year-old US skier won seven (Levi, Killington, Lienz, Flachau, Jasna, Åre, and Saalbach) of the 11 Women's World Cup Slalom events last season. She only claimed more World Cup Slalom wins in the 2018-2019 winter season when she won 8 races. Shiffrin won all Slalom races she started last season with three exceptions: In the Opening Slalom in Levi she finished in fourth position. In December in Courchevel, she finished in second position. In January in Kranjska Gora, Shiffrin failed to finish the first run after straddling a gate. The last time Shiffrin did not finish a Slalom event was also in Kranjska Gora on January 9, 2022.
Katharina Liensberger finished in second place in the Slalom opener in Levi. She hopes to take the momentum from Finland with her and confirm her good start to the season in Gurgl next Saturday. It remains to be seen whether the 2021 Slalom World Champion's podium in Levi will remain an outlier. Last season, after finishing third in Levi, she did not make it onto the World Cup podium again.
The last time an Austrian female skier won on home soil was in Lienz in 2013 with Marlies Schild. Liensberger, in Åre in 2022, was the last Austrian female skier to win in Slalom.
Liensberger has won three World Cup slalom races and finished on the podium 15 times. The four Austrian women to have claimed more than three World Cup Slalom victories are Marlies Schild (35), Roswitha Steiner (8), Gertrud Gabl (5), and Nicole Hosp (5).
Katharina Liensberger won the Slalom Crystal Globe in 2021.
At the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, Liensberger took silver in the Slalom behind gold medallist Petra Vlhova.
In Cortina 2020, Liensberger posted the fastest times in both slalom runs, finishing well ahead of Petra Vhlova and Mikaela Shiffrin to take the gold medal. She was the first Austrian woman to reach the world championship podium in the Slalom since Michaela Kirchgasser (silver) in 2013. The last Austrian to win the Women's slalom world title was Marlies Schild in 2011.
With a third place in the first slalom of the winter, on her favorite slope, Lena Dürr had a perfect start to the season.
Dürr finished second in the 2024 Slalom standings. Last season she enjoyed the best season of his career, with four podiums in her first six races (second and third in Levi, second in Lienz, and second again in Kranjska Gora). She has twelve individual World Cup podiums to her name, all in slalom.
In Gurgl, she will be aiming for her second Slalom World Cup victory after her win in Špindleruv Mlýn on 29 January 2023.
Zrinka Ljutic finished third behind Shiffrin and Dürr in the first run in Levi, but in the second run struggled on the steepest part of the course and lost time, finishing sixth.
Last season, the 20-year-old Croatian talent finished runner-up in three of the last four Women's World Cup slalom events in Jasná, Soldeu, and Åre. In Saalbach, she did not finish the second run after setting the third-best time in the first run.
Ljutic became the first woman to finish second in three consecutive World Cup slaloms since Mikaela Shiffrin had a run of four second-place finishes from March to November 2020. Ljutic, 20, can become the youngest woman to win a World Cup slalom since Shiffrin, then 20, won in Jasná in March 2016. Janica Kostelic is the only woman representing Croatia to have won World Cup events. Kostelic clinched 30 World Cup victories, including 20 in the Slalom.
In 2023, Zrinka Ljutic (3rd in Špindlerův Mlýn) and Leona Popovic (2nd in Soldeu) recorded Croatia's first Slalom podiums in the Women's World Cup since Ana Jelusic in 2007. Last season Popovic also had come very close to Croatia's first World Cup victory on the Women's side since 2006. Popovic finished runner-up in the second Levi Slalom on 12 November 2023.
Anna Swenn Larsson finished on the podium three times last season, including a win in Soldeu in February, her second World Cup victory. The Swede has twelve slalom World Cup podiums to her name.
Swenn-Larsson was the silver medallist behind Mikaela Shiffrin in the Slalom at the 2019 World Championships in Åre.
Thanks to a strong second run, Camille Rast, who finished the first run in 7th place, came close to securing a podium position in Levi. The 25-year-old finished in 5th place, just 0.5 seconds away from the podium. Rast had already achieved three top-5 finishes in Slalom last season.
Another Swiss, Mélanie Meillard, showed once again that she likes the course in Levi with her seventh place. After 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2023, it was Meillard's fifth Top-10 finish in the Finnish ski resort. The last time Meillard made it this far in a World Cup slalom was in Jasna last season when she finished fifth just behind Rast.
Paula Moltzan showed her speed in the first run and finished fifth. In the second run, Moltzan nailed the top section but ran into trouble on the steep. She made it down with a few notable mistakes and finished the race in eighth place.
21-year-old German supertalent Emma Aicher posted the fastest time in the second run thanks to a great performance. Aicher, 22nd after the first run, climbed 13 places to finish inside the Top 10. With her skill and technique, Aicher will be able to find the consistency she needs in the coming races to claim her first podium.