MIKAELA SHIFFRINS GREAT SLIDE INTO THE NEW YEAR

It was a great slide that Mikaela could celebrate in the penultimate race of 2017. “Slide” is only used metaphorically for the precise carving turns, which the World Cup champion drew in the East Tyrolean snow on Thursday. After the first run with nearly a one second lead she shrewdly kept the competition at a distance in the final. “Mikaela proved her intelligence yet again. On this difficult slope there was no point in risking a mistake or in the best case a win with a two second lead”, Christian Höflehner praised his figurehead, who has split her 36 wins in total over 21 World Cup destinations.

In the giant slalom on Friday Mikaela nearly achieved her 7th season win and 37th World Cup win. She was only 0.08 seconds down in the end, and came in third in the hundredths lottery, where luck was not on her side. “Unfortunately I skied too reservedly in some sectiions today” the US girl laments, who doesn’t normally have much reason for exaggerated self-criticism. Her lead to the next contender in the overall standings however is a gigantic 371 points at the end of the year. Christian Höflehner said: “Number games, where Mikaela could break Tina Maze’s points record (2414) are still far-fetched, as she would need to deliver serial wins in the speed races as well. But we will still be totally happy if she wins with a one point lead by the end of the season.” A second Redster girl, Katharina Gallhuber was also smiling from ear to ear in Lienz: with 7th place in the slalom rankings the 20 year old delivered her best career result to-date (slalom in Killington), and on her 2nd run was only three hundredths of a second slower than her prominent brand colleague.

REDSTER-EXPERTS ARE GETTING INTO POSITION FOR THE OLYMPIC COMBINED
With the return of the Mens World Cup to Bormio the Atomic experts knew how to stand out especially in the combined. Peter Fill achieved his third podium place in this discipline (after Wengen in 2006 and 2009). Mario Caviezel just missed the podium with fourth place (second best career result) by 23 hundredths. “I was able to ski much better on the icier piste today” the South Tyrolean commented after being fastest in the downhill training sessions. “Peter’s slalom turns give us confidence for the Olympic combined. But his greatest goal is naturally still a downhill medal, ideally Gold” the race director Christian Höflehner said.

The World Cup will continue without a break. On New Year’s Day with the city event in Oslo and on 3rd Ladies) and 4th January (Mens) the slalom races are competing in Zagreb, where we’ll also be back with some Facebook Live sessions.

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