Remarkable Shiffrin Wins Third Slalom

FLACHAU, Austria (Jan. 15) - Seventeen-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) spent the day doing high school homework, then she won the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup night slalom in Flachau for a historic third win of her incredibly young career. The stunning victory drew immediate comparisons to Austrian great Annmarie Moser-Proell, who won her third World Cup race at exactly the same age - to the day. Moser-Proell would go on to win a women's World Cup record 62 races over the course of her 11 year career. Shiffrin, who was voted World Cup Rookie of the Year last season by her peers, poured on speed throughout her final run to extend her lead in the discipline to 81 points as first run leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany went out and World Cup overall leader Tina Maze of Slovenia finished fifth.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) won the third Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom of her young career with a .85 second victory in Flachau.
• Coincidentally, the victory matched Austrian Annmarie Moser-Proell, who also earned the third World Cup win of her career at 17 years, 308 days old.
• Shiffrin boosted her lead in the slalom standings to 81 points as first run leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany failed to finish the second run and Slovenian Tina Maze finished fifth.
• She is now fifth in the overall World Cup standings with Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) sixth and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) eighth. Vonn and Mancuso did not start.
• Swede Frida Hansdotter finished second and Tanja Poutianen of Finland - the oldest racer on the women's tour - was third.
• The victory featured the largest purse on the women's World Cup, earning Shiffrin just over $58,500.
• The women's World Cup now shifts back to speed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy with a downhill and super G.

QUOTES
Mikaela Shiffrin
My secret is to not let anything stop me. Sometimes the crowd gets into your head and all of a sudden you're nervous but instead I just let them take me to the finish.

Apparently my mark is the bottom of the course and not the top. You know how when three or four year olds run around all day and they just don't get tired. That's kind of like me, so at the end of the course, I'm like a three-year-old and I just keep going. I guess it works.

I watched a lot of the older girls ever since I was five so I think I gained a lot of experience watching them over and over to the point I was dreaming about skiing in my sleep.

What else does a 17-year-old have to do with this much money. I could buy a car but I'm not allowed to drive yet. I'm really close to graduating high school, so I guess I'll use it to pay for college.

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