Kranjska Gora: Sunday’s slalom in Kranjska Gora in Slovenia was won by Petra Vlhova, who had two outstanding runs on a challenging course. Mikaela Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader, ended her bad weekend by sliding out in the first run.
Vlhova recorded 51.30 seconds in the first run, which was heavily gated, and 56.32 seconds in the second. In the second run, the Slovakian beat Lena Duerr by half a second, with the German finishing 0.72 seconds later.
After the first run, Leona Popovic was third; however, a mistake midway through the second run eliminated the Croat and gave American AJ Hurt her first World Cup podium.
The 23-year-old Californian, who made her World Cup debut in 2018 at the age of 17, finished the first run more than two seconds behind Vlhova, placing her 16th overall. However, she ran the fastest run on the second attempt, finishing 0.87 seconds behind the Slovakian. But Shiffrin, her teammate, had a rough weekend.
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The five-time World Cup overall winner straddled a gate in the second sector of the giant slalom on Saturday, failing to complete and missing the second run. Her ninth-place performance in the discipline was her lowest since November 2022.
Shiffrin hasn’t lost in her favorite event since the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022; 56 of her 93 World Cup wins have come in that discipline.
Vlhova has moved up to second place in the discipline standings, trailing Shiffrin by just five points, but still 207 points behind the American overall.
