FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2024/25: Mikaela Shiffrin claims 98th career World Cup victory in Levi

Mikaela Shiffrin clinched her 98th World Cup win in the Levi slalom on Saturday (16 November) to go top of the overall 2024/25 Alpine Skiing FIS World Cup standings.

Leading by six-tenths of a second after the first run, the double Olympic champion converted that into a winning margin of 0.79 from Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, who secured her first podium finish since Levi 12 months ago. Lena Duerr of Germany was third having been second at midway.

This was a record eighth Levi slalom triumph for the US skier out of 61 World Cup slalom wins. Reigning Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova, who has six wins at the Finnish resort, was missing as she completes her recovery from knee surgery.

The traditional prize for the Levi slalom winner is a reindeer, something which had slipped Shiffrin’s mind as she was interviewed afterwards. She told FIS: “Oh my goodness, the reindeer… You never forget but I wasn’t thinking about it on the run. It was an amazing way to start the slalom season, I’m super happy.”

The second run caught out some of Shiffrin’s rivals and the 29-year-old admitted: “It was a little bumpy. I was getting twisted sometimes but then kept fighting. I didn’t have the perfect tempo but made enough really good turns that it worked really well in the end – a really solid run in not so easy conditions. And Katharina, she must have just killed it. It’s so cool to see her back on the podium and skiing like that. It was fun.”

Emma Aicher went fastest on the second run, attacking hard and carrying her speed down the course. The German was 22nd after the first run but found herself inside the top 10 with several skiers guilty of not being aggressive enough on a deteriorating racing line.

Melanie Meillard, ninth after the first run, eventually displaced Aicher from the top of the timesheets despite making mistakes on the way down. She ceded top spot to team-mate Camille Rast before Anna Swenn-Larsson risked everything to move into first place.

Paula Moltzan was another to let it all hang out, but a couple of wide turns cost her dear. By contrast, Liensberger was smoothness personified as she moved into the lead by almost half a second.

Zrinka Ljutic, third after the first run, struggled with the turns on the second half to drop out of contention. Duerr encountered trouble midway down the course but rallied well to finish just four-hundredths outside Liensberger’s aggregate time.

Shiffrin will bid for World Cup victory number 99 at the Gurgl slalom in Austria next Saturday. A week later, the circuit moves to Killington in the United States for a giant slalom and slalom with a century of wins in sight for the skiing legend.