ARE, Sweden (AP) – Mikaela Shiffrin made a robust return to the Alpine Ski World Cup Sunday after a six-week harm break, setting the quickest time on the opening run of the season’s penultimate rotation.
The American star, racing for the primary time since injuring his left knee in a downhill accident in Italy, was 0.02 seconds forward of Switzerland’s second place Michel Gysin and 0.11 forward of Croatian prodigy Zrinka Ljutic. I beat it by a second.
“It’s fairly particular. I’ve been fortunate sufficient to race once more this season and I’m actually soaking it in. I’m having fun with my return, my knee is holding up and I’m doing job. “I’m grateful for that,” Shiffrin mentioned.
“I felt like I had a extremely good run this time. I used to be pushing the entire time and the ache in my knee did not distract me from snowboarding or pushing the skis, so it was excellent. ”
Shiffrin has been out since January when she sprained her knee’s MCL and tibiofibular ligament, and was nonetheless recovering from a bone bruise she suffered earlier within the season.
“I’ve solely finished 4 common slalom periods previously seven weeks,” Shiffrin mentioned. “I really feel like my snowboarding is basically good proper now, however I haven’t practiced sufficient so I would want a bit of extra vitality to get to that stage on the fly.”
Shiffrin is more likely to match the World Cup slalom report and win her eighth title in her comeback race. With Slovak rival Petra Vlhova out for the season with knee surgical procedure, Lena Duer is the one remaining challenger for the Americans.
The German skier, who trails Shiffrin within the standings by 188 factors, must win each Sunday’s race and the ultimate rotation of the season at subsequent weekend’s World Cup finals in Austria, with Shiffrin main the best way in these races. I hope they do not rating greater than 11 whole factors within the match.
After Sunday’s first run, Durer was in fourth place, 0.24 behind Shiffrin.
Shiffrin’s eighth season title in slalom makes her the fourth skier to win eight Crystal Globes, alpine snowboarding’s conventional award, in a single weight class.
Former U.S. teammate Lindsey Vonn completed the downhill feat. On the lads’s aspect, Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher claimed eight total wins, whereas Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark reached that variety of titles in each slalom and GS.
The rotating title might be Shiffrin’s solely globetrot this season. She missed Saturday’s large slalom on the identical hill and won’t compete within the closing pace occasion, leaving her unable to race properly sufficient to shut the 445-point hole over chief Lara Gut-Behrami. . The Swiss star nearly secured his second total title after successful his first in 2016.
Shiffrin has already made a triumphant return from a midseason break to deal with a knee harm. She didn’t race for 9 weeks after being injured in December 2015, however she received in her return race in February 2016 in a slalom race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
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