Shiffrin Third in Ofterschwang Slalom

OFTERSCHWANG, Germany (March 10) – After leading the first run, Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) powered through softening snow to finish third Sunday in Ofterschwang - her fifth Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom podium of the season. World Cup overall and giant slalom champion Tina Maze won the race to set up a winner take all showdown for the slalom title at World Cup Finals as she jumped eight points ahead of Shiffrin in the standings. The race is set for March 16 in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) finished third in the Ofterschwang slalom on Sunday.
• Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall and giant slalom champion Tina Maze won to move seven points ahead of Shiffrin in the slalom standings, setting up a winner-take-all slalom next week in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
• After falling behind Maze in the opening run at the first two intervals Shiffrin hammered the bottom steep to win the first run by .10.
• Maze skied a near perfect second run to bump Shiffrin to third and Swiss Wendy Holdener to second.
• It was Shiffrin’s fifth World Cup slalom podium in only her second full season on the World Cup.
• She stands eighth in the overall standings going into World Cup Finals.
• Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY) tweaked her back and opted not to start.
• Warm, sunny weather was nice for spectators but the course required a lot of maintenance to keep up good surface conditions. 
• Universal Sports Network will air the race at 11:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. ET.

QUOTES
Mikaela Shiffrin
After first run
The second part of my run, the bottom part, felt like my training skiing, so that felt normal. In the top part I was working against the rut. Really all I’m trying to do is pretend it’s a training day. I’m just trying to find that mindset, that it’s a training day.

After second run
I’ll just go as hard as I can and see if I can get it (the slalom title) back or, if not, I’ve still had an amazing season so I can’t be disappointed. I’m definitely proud of myself, but you always want more. I always want more. Yeah, I want the globe, but we’ll see if it works out that way. Tina’s had an amazing season and she just keeps going, so that’s really cool and inspiring.

Yeah, it isn’t over ‘til the fat lady sings, that’s a phrase we have in the U.S. (laughs). I’m really excited for Lenzerheide. I trained there a few weeks ago and it is a really awesome hill. It’s always exciting to have the very last race be important to the end. It’s nice to know that in the slalom this year there was a battle for the end and anybody could win.

It was really fun. I think it was really well done. It was unbelievable how the surface held up with all the workers working so hard on the hill and making so the surface felt like it wasn’t warm. But it was very warm and it was a dramatic difference from the warm-up course to the race hill. So that shows there was a lot of effort put into making the race go off and yesterday and today were really well done.

I’m happy that I got a podium today and am looking at the positives, but I definitely wanted to win. In the end I’m just trying to ski my best. I didn’t quite do that the second run, which just means I’m going to go back and look at my video and figure out what I can do better.

Yeah, she’s (Tina Maze) been unbelievable this season, and what’s this her 22nd or 23rd podium? That’s a lot. I think she’s been on every podium except for maybe two this season. There’s a lot to say for that, to be able to perform her very best, or maybe it’s not even her best, but to perform well on race day in every race, it’s just really cool. I think everybody is going to go back to the drawing board this summer and figure out what she did that worked so well. 

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