Mikaela Shiffrin wins for the 8th time in Levi. Camille Rast also puts in a strong performance and finishes the slalom in 5th place. Melanie Meillard finishes 7th, Wendy Holdener (16th) and Michelle Gisin (24th) also score a few World Cup points.
Mikaela Shiffrin wins the first World Cup slalom of the winter in Levi, Finland. Camille Rast and Mélanie Meillard impress with 5th and 7th place.
Rast and Meillard's performances were a seamless continuation of last season, in which they, together with Michelle Gisin, were able to close the gap left by Wendy Holdener after her injury-related absence to an unexpected extent.
Rast surprised herself with her performance, as the slope in Levi is not her favorite terrain. She saw her aggressive skiing style as a sign of the self-confidence she had regained in the previous winter.
In contrast to her team-mate, Meillard likes the conditions in Levi. The results she has achieved in the past are proof of this. Loïc Meillard's sister has already finished 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th here.
Wendy Holdener, who missed almost all of last season due to a fracture in her left ankle, finished 16th in her first World Cup slalom in a year. In the second run, she lost three positions. Michelle Gisin dropped even further down the rankings. She slipped from 11th to 24th place.
The second returnee in the Swiss team, Aline Danioth, who was back after another long forced break, finished her first World Cup outing in 40th place after 657 days away. The skier from Uri suffered a cruciate ligament tear in her right knee in March last year, her sixth serious injury.
Like Danioth, Elena Stoffel, who finished 31st by three hundredths, Aline Höpli and Janine Mächler also missed out on qualifying for the second run. Nicole Good was eliminated in the first run in the upper section.
In the absence of Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, who does not yet feel ready to compete after tearing her cruciate ligament in January, Shiffrin was in a class of her own. She distanced second-placed Austrian Katharina Liensberger by 79 hundredths. Germany's Lena Dürr, in second place after half the stint, completed the podium. Shiffrin won the slalom in Levi for the eighth time. It was her 98th victory in the World Cup.
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