By Alan Baldwin
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – U.S. great Mikaela Shiffrin lived up to her reputation as overwhelming favourite for women’s slalom gold on Wednesday with a mighty first leg in the last Alpine skiing event of the Milano Cortina Olympics.
The most successful skier in World Cup history started seventh on a gloriously sunny morning in Cortina d’Ampezzo and left her rivals trailing far behind with a time of 47.13 seconds.
Germany’s Lena Duerr, second fastest in 47.95, was a whopping 0.82 of a second behind according to provisional results.
“It felt very good, it was very good skiing. I was super active and I was also a bit on the limit. There were probably three different times when I felt I could probably easily be pushed off the course but I guess it was what it required,” said Shiffrin.
“It requires a lot of precision … mentality and a bit of tactical planning in the middle. I felt like I nailed it – with some question marks but I’m going to give it a go in the second run.”
Nobody else came within a second of Shiffrin’s time and the gap between her and Duerr was the same as that between the German and 10th-placed Austrian Katharina Truppe.
Sweden’s Cornelia Oehlund was third, exactly one second off the pace.
SHIFFRIN CHASING FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL SINCE 2018
Shiffrin has won seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season but is still chasing her first Olympic medal since 2018, after drawing a blank in the team combined and giant slalom, and Wednesday was her third and last chance of 2026.
The 2014 Olympic slalom champion made clear it was business as usual with an aggressive run down a gleaming piste set by the Austrian coach Klaus Mayrhofer.
She was fastest through three of four sectors and walked away with a smile on her face.
Switzerland’s Camille Rast, the world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in slalom this season, was in fourth place and 1.05 behind the American.
Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson and Switzerland’s five times Olympic medallist Wendy Holdener were tied in fifth place with 48.29.
Italian-born Lara Colturi, who skis for Albania, was seventh but with 1.26 to make up.
Reigning Olympic champion Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, sidelined for almost two years with torn knee ligaments, was 2.86 behind Shiffrin.
The first run featured a mighty 95 starters, with later runners from an array of non-snow nations including Madagascar, Trinidad and Tobago, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The second run, set by Swedish coach Sascha Sorio, starts at 1230GMT.
(Additional reporting by Julien Pretot and Sara Rossi, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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