Mikaela Shiffrin is the overwhelming favorite to win the Levi's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom and the Crystal Globe. 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.
Mikaela Shiffrin (13), 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 the last two seasons. Holdener and Swenn-Larsson shared first place in Killington on 27 November 2022.
Apart from Mikaela Shiffrin (7), and Petrá Vlhova (3) only Anna Swenn Larsson in Soldeu won a Women's World Cup Slalom last season. In Soldeu, in the first Slalom race without Petra Vlhova and Mikaela Shiffrin, Anna Swenn Larsson imposed her experience and regained physical fitness 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. The Swedish finished 0.35 ahead of Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic. USA's Paula Moltzan was 0.48 behind in the third. With Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova, and Wendy Holdener all sidelined by injury, some lesser-known names also had a chance of finishing on the podium in Andorra.
Last season, Mikaela Shiffrin celebrated a record-breaking 97th Alpine Ski World Cup victory in Saalbach. It was her 60th victory in the Slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin won her eighth Slalom Crystal Globe (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.
In 2023 Shiffrin became the most successful skier of all time on the "Levi Black" slope with her seventh win (2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, twice in 2022 and 2023). Shiffrin's seven Slalom victories in Levi is a new record for the number of victories in this discipline at one specific venue. Only Lindsey Vonn (14 Downhill in Lake Louise) and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (7 Downhill in Pfronten) have recorded more than six World Cup wins in a specific event at a single resort among Women's skiers.
Shiffrin has only finished off the podium three times in her 15 Slalom World Cup appearances in Levi.
Lena Dürr finished second in the 2024 slalom standings. Last season she enjoyed the best season of his career, with four podiums in his first six races.
In Levi, she will be aiming for her second Slalom World Cup victory after her win in Špindleruv Mlýn on 29 January 2023. Duerr was on the podium four times last season (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.
Switzerlands' Michelle Gisin is the only woman to have finished inside the Top-10 in all World Cup Slalom events in 2024, including two podiums in Lienz and Åre. Thanks to her consistency she finished in fourth place in the Slalom standings. The last Swiss woman to win a World Cup Slalom event was Wendy Holdener, who won two in a row in November-December 2022 (Killington and Sestrière).
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.
Sara Hector's third position in the Night Slalom in Flachau marks her first podium in this discipline in the Alpine Ski World Cup. A giant slalom specialist, Hector finished sixth in the Slalom standings thanks to consistent performances throughout the season.
Katharina Liensberger has won three World Cup slalom races and finished on the podium 14 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.
Last season Katharina Liensberger returned in Levi to a World Cup Podium. The last time the 27-year-old skier from Vorarlbergshe finished in the Top-3 was in March 2022, when she won the Slalom in Åre.
Liensberger faced a very challenging 2022-2023 season, finishing only twice in the Slalom Top-10. Last season she finished in the Top-10 in 8 of the 11 races.
Zrinka Ljutic finished runner-up in three of the last 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, 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.
Wendy Holdener is making her Slalom comeback in Levi. Holdener has finished second three times in Levi, in 2016, 2019 and 2022.
She is is tied-seventh in the all-time World Cup Slalom podium finishers, alongside Janica Kostelic and Pernilla Wiberg (all 35). Perrine Pelen (36) is next on the list. Only Frida Hansdotter (17) finished runner-up as many times in World Cup slalom events as Holdener (16).
After a promising start to the 2023-2024 season, including a third place in the Killington Slalom, Holdener suffered a fracture of her left ankle in a training fall in mid-December 2023. She had to undergo surgery and had to put to an end her season.
Holdener finished third in the Slalom standings in 2016, 2017, and 2019; and second in 2018 and 2023.
Laurence St-Germain is the reigning World Champion in the Women's Slalom. St-Germain's best result in a World Cup Slalom event is fifth place in Åre on 11 March 2023, three weeks after becoming a world champion.
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