Lindsey Vonn wins giant slalom as Mikaela Shiffrin crashes out

Vail’s Lindsey Vonn won her four straight World Cup race on Saturday, and the 71st of her career, claiming a giant slalom in Are, Sweden, but her teammate and fellow Vail Valley resident, Eagle-Vail’s Mikaela Shiffrin, injured her knee in training and did not race. Kilian Albrecht, Shiffrin’s manager commented on the injury. Albrecht stated the MRI will “probably take a while”.

The course had been shortened, due to strong winds, but Vonn tackled the artificially lit course with force in her first run while her competitors played it safe.

“I watched playback of that win yesterday evening and I had plenty of confidence coming out of Lake Louise”.

“I love racing here in Are under the lights”, Vonn said. The American won the last five slalom races stretching back to last season.

In the second run, Vonn’s lead over Brem was down to just three hundredths at the final interval but her gliding skills paid off over the final gates. The next in rank is Switzerland’s Lara Gut at 122 points behind Vonn.

“I tried to be smart on the bottom where it was turny and some of the girls had some trouble”, she said.

Shiffrin, 20, is one of the top young stars in skiing.

“It’s just been a great season so far”, said Vonn, who missed the season-opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, in October while recovering from a broken left ankle.

Shiffrin, 20, ended up in the hospital after her wipe out to have a physician take a look at her knee.

The veteran American was fastest in the first leg after compatriot and nearest challenger Mikaela Shiffrin pulled up with a knee ligament injury during the warmup. We can’t afford to lose any more athletes so I really hope that they’re both OK.

Vlhova won the slalom at the 2014 world junior championships but had never finished better than seventh on the World Cup circuit – although that result came in Aspen, Colorado, last month.

VAL D’ISERE, France – Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway easily protected his lead from the first run to win the opening World Cup slalom race of the season on Sunday, beating Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 1.09 seconds and taking the first round in what promises to be a fascinating contest for the overall slalom title.