Slim Win for Norway's Kristoffersen

The men’s World Cup slalom opener could serve as a harbinger for a rivalry to come this season, as the world’s two best slalom skiers, in a league of their own on Sunday, battled it to within twelve-hundredths of a second on the Levi Black course in Finland.

 

Twenty-year-old Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, likened by some to Mikaela Shiffrin on the men’s tour for his youthful promise in technical disciplines, overtook Marcel Hirscher who held the slight edge after the first run. A gritty second run ultimately paid dividends for Kristoffersen, who simply took more risk than the clean-skiing Austrian to claim the second win of his young career.

 

“(Levi) is an awesome place, it’s the closest I get to home,” said Kristoffersen. “Everybody is cheering on and it’s really fun to ski here. The course and the snow is really good. It almost didn’t feel any different starting one or starting 29th in the second run, so that was really cool.”