Shiffrin Third in Soldeu Slalom to Tie Women's Podium Record; Wins Seventh Slalom Crystal Globe
Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Mikaela Shiffrin skied onto the World Cup podium for the 137th time, taking third in the World Cup Finals slalom in Soldeu, Andorra to tie the record for most alpine skiing World Cup podiums for a woman. She also received her seventh career slalom World Cup crystal globe, marking her the most dominant slalom skier of the 2022-23 season.
“My first several slalom globes, it’s almost like I won them almost without understanding,” Shiffrin reflected after the race. “I had less pressure when I was skiing—feeling young, just trying to earn my spot to be racing on the World Cup still. Now there’s always a little more weight. Every single race I feel the weight of having to be one of the best in the world no matter what the day is. It’s quite a privilege but somedays it’s quite heavy. But today it didn’t feel heavy, it just felt like a really good opportunity. It was the best way to finish the season in a race.”
Shiffrin’s podium ties her with Lindsey Vonn’s women’s podium record and brings Shiffrin's total podium percentage above 55%, meaning that she podiums in more than half of her World Cup starts. The only men with more World Cup podiums are retired skiers Marcel Hirscher of Austria with 138 and Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden with 155. Shiffrin already has the most alpine skiing World Cup wins in history with 87, having beat Stenmark’s record last week.
Plus, the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team women won the FIS Nations Cup for slalom. The combination of slalom points earned by the slalom team helped achieve this great effort. This is the first time in history that the U.S. has gotten this title. This honor is highlighted by Shiffrin's stellar slalom performance this season as well as Paula Moltzan's top seven slalom ranking season.
The day was tricky, with warm weather and soft snow. Shiffrin was fourth after first run, and was able to bump up a place to the podium with a fast second run. Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team skier Paula Moltzan was sitting in sixth after first run, but had to hike second run and dropped to 16th place. Petra Vlhova of Slovakia took the win with Leona Popovic of Croatia in second place.
On the men’s side, Tommy Ford was the leading Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team man, finishing in 18th place. River Radamus did not finish his first run.
"Today was more linked together from top to bottom than I've had for the second half the season. I've had runs here and there but it was good and it felt good to do that again," said Ford.
Marco Odermatt of Switzerland won his 13th Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup of the season by an astonishing 2.11 seconds to tie the men’s single-season win record. He also broke Austrian Hermann Maier’s men’s record of 2,000 points from the 1999-00 season, accumulating 2,042 points so far for the season. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway was second and Marco Schwarz of Austria was third. Odermatt also took home the GS crystal globe.
The men race slalom on Sunday, while the women race giant slalom to wrap up the season. Shiffrin will have a chance to break the World Cup podium tie in tomorrow’s GS, where she has already secured the GS crystal globe. Stream both races live on skiandsnowboard.live or Peacock, or watch the delayed women’s GS broadcast at CNBC at 3 p.m. ET. Watch the recap of today’s women’s slalom on CNBC at 3 p.m. ET.
HOW TO WATCH
all times EST
Saturday, March 18
3:00 p.m. - Women's Slalom, CNBC*
Sunday, March 19
4:00 a.m. - Women's Giant Slalom, Run 1, skiandsnowboard.live, peacocktv.com
5:30 a.m. - Men's Slalom, Run 1, skiandsnowboard.live
7:00 a.m. - Women's Giant Slalom, Run 2, skiandsnowboard.live, peacocktv.com
8:30 a.m. - Men's Slalom, Run 2, skiandsnowboard.live
3:00 p.m. - Women's Giant Slalom, CNBC*
*delayed broadcast
