{"id":173784,"date":"2025-11-30T23:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/mikaela-shiffrin-unmatched-again-wins-third-straight-world-cup-slalom-to-open-olympic-season-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:22:14","slug":"mikaela-shiffrin-unmatched-again-wins-third-straight-world-cup-slalom-to-open-olympic-season-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/mikaela-shiffrin-unmatched-again-wins-third-straight-world-cup-slalom-to-open-olympic-season-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikaela Shiffrin, unmatched again, wins third straight World Cup slalom to open Olympic season &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Olympics<br \/>Mikaela Shiffrin has 104 career World Cup wins, the most in Alpine skiing history.<!-- --> <span class=\"Article_ImageCredit__jphI3 Typography_body1__xfKuc inherit Typography_base__jzSqr\">Sean M. Haffey \/ Getty Images<\/span><br \/>American Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin won her third straight World Cup slalom race to start this Olympic season, dominating Sunday on the home snow of Copper Mountain in Colorado, one year to the day after a hard crash that cost her two months of last season.<br \/>Just as she did in World Cup slaloms in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6809649\/2025\/11\/15\/mikaela-shiffrin-slalom-world-cup-finland-olympics\/\">Levi, Finland<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6830596\/2025\/11\/23\/mikaela-shiffrin-world-cup-slalom-win-103-gurgl\/\">Gurgl, Austria<\/a>, the previous two weeks, Shiffrin once again won by well over a second. She finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 48.75 seconds, 1.57 better than Germany\u2019s Lena Duerr. Albania\u2019s Lara Colturi took third, 1.85 behind.<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>It\u2019s the fourth straight overall slalom win for Shiffrin, who also won the 2024-25 season finale race in March in Sun Valley, Idaho, and a record-extending 104th overall Alpine World Cup race win in her unmatched career. Sixty-seven of those are in slalom.<br \/>In bib No. 4, racing not far from her home, Shiffrin posted an early first-run time of 52.94 seconds that no skier after her came within a half-second of matching. Switzerland\u2019s Wendy Holdener, who led off the first run, had the second-best time, 0.28 behind Shiffrin.<br \/>But in the second run, the top challengers faded. Holdener had the 25th-best time in the final leg. Austria\u2019s Katarina Liensberger, in third after the first run, had the 18th-best time in the second. Colturi, fourth after the first trip, had just the 14th-best time.<br \/>That meant Shiffrin, the last skier up, basically just needed to get to the finish line. She started her second run with a 1.28-second lead and grew it from there.<br \/>\u201cI felt perfect this run,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cI connected with the track so nice. It was beautiful to ski.\u201d<br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>&nbsp;<br \/><a style=\" font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DRsfCL_iC3w\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A post shared by Audi FIS Ski World Cup (@fisalpine)<\/a><br \/><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/> U.S. teammate Paula Moltzan finished eighth. Defending slalom overall champion Zrinka Ljuti\u0107 skied out on the first run after slipping on an edge and straddling a gate.<br \/>The women\u2019s slalom was the final competition of a busy World Cup weekend at Copper Mountain. On Saturday, in the women\u2019s giant slalom, New Zealand\u2019s Alice Robinson won her fifth career World Cup title, making her the winningest women\u2019s Alpine ski racer born outside Europe or North America, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fis-ski.com\/alpine-skiing\/news\/2025-26\/complete-disbelief-robinson-makes-history-with-gs-victory\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">per FIS-ski.com<\/a>.<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s always really special for me to represent New Zealand,\u201d Robinson said, \u201cespecially in a sport like ski racing that\u2019s so dominated by North America and Europe, so I\u2019m really proud of that.\u201d<br \/>Robinson won in a combined time of 1:58.91. Austria\u2019s Julia Scheib took second, 0.96 back, with Norway\u2019s Thea Louise Stjernesund in third, 1.08 off the pace. Nina O\u2019Brien was the top American, finishing 11th. Shiffrin was 14th.<br \/>On Friday, 34-year-old Stefan Brennsteiner of Austria won the men\u2019s giant slalom for his first career World Cup victory. Swiss star and race favorite Marco Odermatt fell on the first run and opened the door for the field, and Brennsteiner capitalized, winning in a combined time of 2:30.98.<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>\u201cIt means a lot for me,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fis-ski.com\/alpine-skiing\/news\/2025-26\/brennsteiner-secures-maiden-world-cup-victory-after-odermatt-crashes-out-of-copper-mountain-giant-slalom\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Brennsteiner said<\/a>. \u201cThe last years were quite good, but I had tough times in my career.\u201d<br \/>Norway\u2019s Henrik Kristoffersen was second, 0.95 seconds behind. Croatia\u2019s Filip Zub\u010di\u0107 was third, 1 second back.<br \/>A day earlier, Odermatt ruled the men\u2019s super-G for his second World Cup triumph of the season, winning in 1:07.70. He edged Austria\u2019s Vincent Kriechmayr by 0.08 seconds. Austrian Raphael Haaser was 0.13 back in third.<br \/>Odermatt, the most dominant men\u2019s Alpine skier of the moment, now has 47 World Cup wins and has won the downhill, super-G, giant slalom and overall season titles two years running.<br \/>\u201cYou\u2019re never done, you always have to continue with the hard work,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fis-ski.com\/alpine-skiing\/news\/2025-26\/odermatt-begins-super-g-title-defence-with-victory-at-copper-mountain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Odermatt said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just great that I can start the season like this.\u201d<br \/>Thursday\u2019s super-G was also notable for the return of Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. The 21-time World Cup winner and 2020 overall season champion has been out since January 2024 after a hard crash and complications in his recovery.<br \/>But he was back Thursday, finishing tied for 24th and sharing an embrace with his fianc\u00e9e, Shiffrin, after the race.<br \/>Three days later, Shiffrin continued to reestablish her grip on the slalom world. Her crash in a giant slalom in Killington, Vt., last Nov. 30 left her with a puncture wound and kept her out of competition for two months. She\u2019s now won five slaloms since her return in January.<br \/>But the faster giant slalom discipline has posed a bigger mental and physical hurdle to clear. A 22-time World Cup winner in giant slalom, Shiffrin hasn\u2019t made a podium since the injury. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6747606\/2025\/10\/25\/mikaela-shiffrin-alpine-skiing-world-cup-julia-scheib-paula-moltzan\/\">Her fourth-place finish<\/a> in the season-opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, in October was her best result since January 2024.<br \/>The men return to action next weekend in Beaver Creek, Colorado, with downhill, super-G and giant slalom races. The women are at Tremblant in Quebec, Canada, for a pair of giant slaloms.<br \/>The first women\u2019s downhill and super-G races of the season are scheduled for Dec. 12-14 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.<br \/>Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<br \/>Find the hidden link between sports terms<br \/>Play today&#x27;s puzzle<br \/><span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/author\/zack-pierce\/\" aria-label=\"Zack Pierce's Author Page\">Zack Pierce<\/a><\/strong>  is the national managing editor for The Athletic. Before that, he was the managing editor for The Athletic&#8217;s Minnesota coverage. He spent over 10 years in various editorial capacities at FoxSports.com after a brief stint at ESPN.com. A Minnesota native, he co-founded the Trent Tucker Fan Club and refused to interact with society for several hours after the 1998 NFC Championship Game.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMisAFBVV95cUxQajcyWDRZUVdrWWY0TWg1Q2dXVlNnN3Q0V0s3b2NaRzNfNnRzVmJlUTBIcFliVnFCVnQtX2Z6cE52b1Rna1FlT3g3SEw3NW5lRlFPSmtmckFLYVFZeGhBWUZOSDFxa1pJX1hqVDNGRHBHd2xpSThxNHZkUkRIcVFOSW9lOG9ZMXhLanZZSFdjUlNKeGJXWVdhanZSMTJsWGgtU0lYdktSSmhRRjZVV1dxOA?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OlympicsMikaela Shiffrin has 104 career World Cup wins, the most in Alpine skiing history. Sean M. Haffey \/ Getty ImagesAmerican Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin won her third straight World Cup slalom race to start this Olympic season, dominating Sunday on the home snow of Copper Mountain in Colorado, one year to the day after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}