Mikaela Shiffrin earned today her 66th World Cup win. The American ski star raced in Bansko for the first time and collected three podiums with two victories (Downhill and Super-G). It was Shiffrin's first win in the discipline since clinching the super-G world title in February in Are, and she went top of the season standings. Now she sits just one victory behind now-retired Austrian Marcel Hirscher's 67 World Cup wins, bettered only by Vonn and Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark (86). Mikaela Shiffrin beat Marta Bassino of Italy by 0.29 seconds, with Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland 0.70 seconds back in third.
"I felt really good on my skis. I felt like I could do what I wanted to do. But I had to be really aggressive. It wasn’t always perfectly clean, but I think it was the fastest way that I could ski this hill and this course. So I’m super excited, and I think the whole team is very excited about the whole weekend but especially today", remarked Shiffrin. "These kind of races over this weekend, it’s really challenging – they are very difficult – and I think that makes the victories or these good races so much sweeter".
Marta Bassino finished her fantastic weekend with two second places and a top 5 that permitted her to sit in fourth overall.
For Gut, it was her first podium after the third place in the Super-G celebrated in Garmisch-Partenkirchen the same day last year.
"I have been a long time away from the podium. It’s been a year, and it’s not always so easy. You just try to be confident and ski and work every day to go back where you want to be", said Gut-Behrami. "I just hope that I can take the feeling I had today and the last races just to put the pieces together because I’m still struggling a little bit for the balance to find the confidence on the skis. I ski a few turns really fast, and then I just make mistakes. But it’s the way I have to go through".
Comments