ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin dealt best with difficult course conditions Wednesday to lead a women’s World Cup slalom after the first run in unseasonable warm weather.
The four-time overall champion is chasing World Cup career victory 81, which would leave her one short of the women’s record held by fellow American Lindsey Vonn. The overall best mark is 86, from Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.
Shiffrin drew an unfavorable start number and began last among the top-seven ranked racers. But she did best to keep the line between the gates, despite being bounced around by ruts and waves in the rather soft snow surface after days with temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (50-59 Fahrenheit).
Shiffrin was the only racer to complete the Crveni Spust course in less than 49 seconds, leading Anna Swenn Larsson by 0.23 seconds. The Swede won her first World Cup slalom in November.
Former overall champion Petra Vlhová of Slovakia, who won the race on the outskirts of the Croatian capital the past three seasons, was 0.55 back in third. Austrian world champion Katharina Liensberger trailed by 0.86 in fourth and was the only other skier to finish within a second of Shiffrin’s time.
Swiss skier Wendy Holdener, who won back-to-back slaloms this season, had 1.28 to make up in the second leg.
Paula Moltzan, who came runner-up to Shiffrin in a night race in Austria last week for the first American 1-2 finish in a women’s slalom in 51 years, was just 0.07 off the pace at the first split before straddling a gate and not finishing her run.
Shiffrin was coming off four straight World Cup victories, including a super-G, two giant slaloms and a slalom. The American has won five consecutive races once before, in 2018.
Only two female racers won more races in succession: Swiss skier Vreni Scheider won eight in 1988-89 and Germany’s Katja Seizinger won six in 1997.
___
More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports