City event slaloms are like a slug-fest on snow as racers punch through the gates. But as any good fighter knows, opening a match with a fist bump is a sign of respect, even when you’re the reigning champion.

“Before the second run, we did a little fist bump, like ‘yeah, come on,” said the undisputed five-time World Slalom Champion Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.), who punched her way to FIS Ski World Cup victory no. 14 this season after knocking out Germany’s Christina Geiger in Tuesday night’s city event big final in Stockholm, Sweden. “It was a different feeling at this race. Just a little bit more focus, but I enjoyed it. And it was nice to share with Anna and (Chris)Tina.”

Coming off her World Championships slalom victory Saturday in Åre, Sweden, Shiffrin was still battling a nasty chest cold that almost KO’d her. “It was a push tonight. I don’t think I could have done better if I was healthy,” she said. “My skiing was good, and I was attacking and doing everything that I could do for this evening, and it worked out just fine. So sickness, or no sickness, I’m really happy about that.”

While she maintained her focus on the city event slalom, a record sixth World Cup slalom title was on the card as the main event, which she would secure if she led the slalom standings by more than 200 points at the end of the night over the challenger from Slovakia - Petra Vlhova.

In the opening round of 16, Shiffrin’s beat Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel to advance to the round of eight, where she defeated Austria’s Katharina Truppe. But it was Geiger who delivered the knockout punch - defeating Vlhova in the round of eight and set Shiffrin up to secure the World Cup slalom title by night’s end. But, Geiger wasn’t done swinging yet. She continued her impressive skiing by defeating Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter to advance to the finals against Shiffrin, who defeated Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson to set up an all-Sweden battle for third.

After the fist bump, it was game on as Shiffrin took the first run by the smallest of margins - 0.01-seconds!

“It was really, really close,” Shiffrin said of her 1/2 final match up with Swenn-Larsson, as well as her big final match up with Geiger. “I was training a bit yesterday at the same time as her (Anna Swenn-Larsson)...and watching her doing this blocking style and I thought ‘whoa, she’s really, really good at it.’ I think she’s faster than what she was able to show in the race tonight.”

In the second run, with the World Cup slalom title on the line, Shiffrin took the victory by 0.27-seconds and matched the World Cup season win record of 14 victories held by Austria’s Vreni Schneider. Swenn-Larsson defeated Hansdotter for third.

Shiffrin has wrapped up her sixth slalom Crystal Globe as she now leads Vlhova by 203 points with only two races remaining. Shiffrin also leads the overall World Cup standings by more than 700 points over Vlhova, as well as teh giant slalom and super-G standings.

Up next, the women’s World Cup circuit with a pair of downhills and an alpine combined event Saturday and Sunday.

RESULTS
Men’s city event
Women’s city event

WORLD CUP STANDINGS
Men
Women

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*Same-day broadcast
**Next-day broadcast

Tuesday, Feb. 19
11:30 p.m. - Men and women's city event - Stockholm, SWE - NBCSN*

Wednesday, Feb. 20
5:00 a.m. - FIS World Junior Alpine Championships men’s downhill - Val di Fassa, ITA - OlympicChannel.com

Friday, Feb. 22
3:30 a.m. - Men’s alpine combined run 1 - Bansko, BUL - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - Men’s alpine combined run 2 - Bansko, BUL - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold

Saturday, Feb. 23
4:15 a.m. - Women’s downhill - Crans-Montana, SWI - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
5:45 a.m. - Men’s super-G, Bansko, BUL - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold

Sunday, Feb. 24
3:30 a.m. - Men’s giant slalom run 1 - Bansko, BUL - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
4:30 a.m. - Women’s alpine combined run 1 - Crans-Montana, SWI - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
6:30 a.m. - Men’s giant slalom run 2 - Bansko, BUL - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:30 a.m. - Women’s alpine combined run 1 - Crans-Montana, SWI - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
10:30 p.m. - Women’s alpine combined run 1 - Crans-Montana, SWI - NBCSN*

All streams are available via desktop (NBCSports.com/Live, NBCSports.com/Gold andOlympicChannel.com) as well as mobile, tablet and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold app and Olympic Channel app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass.
 

Local favorite Alayna Sonnesyn (Plymouth, Minn., SMS T2) won the Minneapolis SuperTour sprint freestyle race Friday on the test track for the FIS World Cup to be held in March 2020.

“I found myself in second place coming down the hill and was hoping to slingshot around, but everyone one else was trying to do the same,” said Sonnesyn. “I was in a good position coming up and over the bridge and I really wanted it today, so I gave it everything I had in the last 100 meters.”

Joining Sonnesyn on the podium was Becca Rorabaugh (Fairbanks, Alaska, APU Nordic Ski Center) in second and Erika Flowers (Bozeman, Mont., Salomon) in third.

The men’s race was won by Canadian Antoine Briand (CNEPH) with Fellow Alaskan’s Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, Alaska, APU Nordic Ski Center) in second and Forrest Mahlen (Frisco, Colo., APU Nordic Ski Center) in third.

When asked about how this race course will be for the World Cup next year, Sonnesyn said, “I am really excited the World Cup is coming to my hometown and feeling like the community is here to support it.  I think it will be a tactical race next year and will require some technical work and strategy to win.”

The SuperTour continues this Saturday, February 23rd in Hayward, Wisconsin, for the American Birkebeiner.

RESULTS
Men and women’s sprint
Men and women’s classic mass start
Men and women’s freestyle interval start

Eighteen U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes are ready to kick off the 2019 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria, Feb. 20 - March 3 against the best athletes in the sport in more than a dozen events -  all of which will be televised and/or streamed its entirely on networks of NBC Sports.

“The Team has had excellent preparation camps over the past two weeks,” said U.S. Cross Country Team Head Coach Chris Grover. “The sprint team has been Vålådalen, Sweden, preparing at lower altitude, while the distance team has been in Davos, Switzerland, at moderate altitude.  Our only challenges during this period have been having too much winter (i.e. lots of snow and cold temps), and too many kilometers of excellent grooming enticing athletes to ski more than they should!”

The team includes two medalists from past championships, Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minn.) and Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.). At the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, Diggins won the silver in the freestyle sprint, and teamed up with Bjornsen in the classic team sprint to take the bronze. Only five Americans have won a cross country medal at World Championships.

“I’m excited for the World Championships, and as we wind down to the final week before the races, I feel good about my preparation,” said Diggins. “I can say with absolute honesty that I’ve done everything I can to be as fit as possible and as mentally ready as I can be, so now it’s just a matter of having fun and letting my body do what it already knows how to do; race as hard as possible!”

“The final prep has been going well here in Davos, Switzerland,” said Bjornsen. “I am really looking forward to showing up ready to fight in a variety of races throughout the Championships. I think my body is in the best place it has ever been at this time of the year, so I can't wait to see what I can convince my mind to do.”

Competition opens on Thursday, February 21, with the freestyle sprint, followed by the skiathlon before heading into the distance races. The Championships conclude on March 2-3 with a 30k women’s and 50k men’s freestyle mass start.

2019 U.S. Cross Country World Championship Team
(name, hometown, ski club, birthdate)

Men

• Simi Hamilton, Aspen, Co., (SMST2) 5/14/1987
• Erik Bjornsen, Winthrop, Wash., (Alaska Pacific University) 7/15/1991
• Andy Newell, Shaftsbury, Vt., (SMST2) 11/30/1983
• Kevin Bolger, Sun Valley, Idaho, (SVSEF) 04/11/1993
• Logan Hanneman, Fairbanks, Alaska, (Alaska Pacific University) 6/2/1993
• Kyle Bratrud, Eden Prairie, Minn., (SMST2) 2/9/1993
• David Norris, Fairbanks, Alaska, (Alaska Pacific University) 12/12/1990
• Ben Lustgarten, Burlington, Vt., (Craftsbury Green Racing) 4/17/1992
• Adam Martin, Wausau, Wis., (Craftsbury Green Racing) 10/26/1994
• Scott Patterson, Anchorage, Alaska, (Alaska Pacific University) 01/28/1998

Women

• Sadie Bjornsen, Winthrop, Wash., (Alaska Pacific University) 11/21/1989
• Sophie Caldwell, Stratton Mountain, Vt., (SMST2) 3/22/1990
• Jessie Diggins, Afton, Minn., (SMST2) 8/26/1991
• Rosie Brennan, Park City, Utah, (Alaska Pacific University) 12/2/1988
• Ida Sargent, Craftsbury, Vt., (Craftsbury Green Racing) 1/25/1988
• Julia Kern, Waltham, Mass., ( SMST2) 09/12/1997
• Caitlin Patterson, Craftsbury, Vt., (Craftsbury Green Racing) 1/30/1990
• Rosie Frankowski, Minneapolis, Minn., (Alaska Pacific University) 7/30/1991

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
Preliminary schedule, subject to change
*Same-day delayed broadcast

Wednesday, Feb. 20
6:30 a.m. - Women's 5k qualifying - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com
8:00 a.m. - Men's 10k qualifying - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com
3:00 p.m. - Men's 10k and women's 5k - NBCSN*

Thursday, Feb. 21
6:00 a.m. - Men and women's sprint qualification - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com
8:30 a.m. - Women’s sprint finals - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
11:30 p.m. - Women’s sprint finals - NBCSN*

Saturday, Feb. 23
5:00 a.m. - Women’s 15k skiathlon - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
8:00 a.m. Men’s 30k skiathlon - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
8:30 a.m. Women’s 15k skiathlon - Olympic Channel-TV*
9:30 a.m. Men’s 30k skiathlon - Olympic Channel-TV*

Sunday, Feb. 24
5:30 a.m. - Men and women’s team sprint finals - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
10:30 a.m. - Men and women’s team sprint finals - Olympic Channel-TV*
11:30 p.m. - Women’s team sprint finals - NBCSN*

Tuesday, Feb. 26
7:30 a.m. - Women's 10k - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com
1:00 p.m. - Women's 10k - NBCSN*

Wednesday, Feb. 27
8:00 a.m. - Men's 15k - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com

Thursday, Feb. 28
7:00 a.m. - Women's 4x5k relay - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com

Friday, March 1
7:00 a.m. - Men's 4x10k relay - - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com

Saturday, March 2
7:00 a.m. - Women's 30k - - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com

Sunday, March 3
7:00 a.m. - Men's 50k -- Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com

All streams are available via desktop (NBCSports.com/Live, NBCSports.com/Gold andOlympicChannel.com) as well as mobile, tablet and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold app and Olympic Channel app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass.

U.S Ski & Snowboard Team athletes Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) and Chloe Kim (Torrence, Calif.) joined golfing legend Tiger Woods and gymnast Simone Biles as the big U.S. winners of the annual Laureus World Sports Awards announced Monday in Monaco.

The Awards honored the greatest and most inspirational sports triumphs of the past calendar year and showcased the work of Laureus Sport for Good.

Skiing great Lindsey Vonn’s incredible career was recognized by the Laureus Academy with the Laureus Spirit of Sport Award. The Spirit of Sport Award is given at the discretion of the Academy, to recognize an athlete or team who have achieved remarkable success and displayed a relentless dedication to their sport. Vonn, the greatest female skier of all time, recently announced her retirement from the sport and won the FIS Alpine World Ski Championship downhill bronze in her final event Feb. 10 in Are, Sweden. Throughout her 18-year career, Vonn won eight World Championship medals, including two gold in downhill and super-G at the 2009 World Champs in Val d’Isere, France; three Olympic medals, including the downhill gold at the 2010 Games in Whistler, Canada; and a record 20 FIS Ski World Cup titles.

Seventeen-year-old American snowboarding sensation Chloe Kim, who became the youngest woman to win a Winter Olympics snowboarding gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, won the Action Sportsperson of the Year Award. Kim recently won her first FIS Snowboard World Championship gold medal in the halfpipe earlier this month in Park City, Utah. She also won the halfpipe gold - her fifth - at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, last month. Olympic champion Shaun White (Carlsbad, Calif.) was also nominated in the category. 

The Laureus World Sports Academy – made up of 68 global sporting legends – volunteered their time to vote for the winners in each shortlisted category which recognizes sporting achievement in the 2018 calendar year. The Awards were hosted by actor James Marsden and featured entertainment from award-Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jorja Smith.

After her record-breaking performance at the gymnastics world championships, in which she won four gold, one silver, and one bronze medal, Simone Biles was crowned Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year. Biles, who also won the Sportswoman Award in 2017, made history last year by becoming the first woman to win four all-around world championships. At just 21, she now has a record 14 career world titles. Double Olympic champion, historic four-time slalom world champion and 2019 super-G World Champion Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.) - who has broken nearly every record there is to break in the sport of alpine ski racing this year - was also nominated for this category. 

Golfing star and 10-time Laureus Nominee Tiger Woods won his third Laureus Award, after winning the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year accolade at the 2000 and 2001 Laureus Awards. The American received the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award for winning the Tour Championship, his first win in 1,876 days, returning to the game after spinal fusion surgery.

For a full list of this year’s award winners, visit awards.laureus.com.

David Wise (Reno, Nev.) battled through wind and snow to claim victory at the FIS Freeski World Cup halfpipe under the lights Saturday night at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

“Conditions were challenging, but the skiers still showed up and gave it their best here in Calgary,” said Wise. “I haven’t won a contest with my first run in a long time, so it feels like a double win for me. Stoked to share the podium with Nico and Noah, they both crushed it in tonight’s halfpipe.”

Wise, despite the wind and snow, displayed huge amplitude on run one and stomped a perfect run earning a score of a 90.00. As he caught his breadth in the finish carral, Wise said, “that took everything I had.” His first run score would hold as the top score of the night.

Wise put together what looked to be another stellar run on his second attempt, but lost his ski upon landing his last hit. Just like the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, he would have to push through an equipment malfunction, but this time around he had the luxury of sitting in first place.

Wise has laced together quite the season thus far with a third-place finishes at the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colo., and the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colo., as well as a silver medal at X Games in Aspen, Colo.

U.S Rookie Team member Hunter Hess (Bend, Ore.) also skied very well landing his third and final run to jump into fourth place just missing the opportunity to collect his second ever World Cup podium. New Zealand’s Nico Porteous finished second and Canada’s Noah Bowman was third.

For the ladies, Brita Sigourney (Carmel, Calif.) put on a great show, but was unable to reach the podium. She was in podium contention until the third and final run where China’s Kexin Zhang put all the pieces together to slide into third ahead of Sigourney. Sigourney was in the fourth position with one more opportunity to find her way back to podium contention, but she was unable to do so. U.S. Rookie Team member Svea Irving (Winter Park, Colo.) performed very consistently landing her first two of three runs with solid amplitude down the halfpipe.

Sharpe topped the podium for her first World Cup win of the season. Karker finished second and Zhang closed out the podium in third.

Competition in Calgary has mixed up the FIS World Cup freeski halfpipe standings. Sigourney moved from eighth into fifth and Karker is now the cup leader. For the men, following his win, Wise moves from seventh to third putting him in contention for the Crystal Globe with one more competition to go at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., March 6-9. Also, Hess moved up one spot from fifth to fourth. New Zealand’s Nico Porteous is the current leader.

RESULTS
Men’s halfpipe
Women’s halfpipe

CUP STANDINGS
Men’s halfpipe
Women’s halfpipe
 

Lindsey Vonn - the most successful female ski racer in history - wrapped up her illustrious 18-year career a with a bronze medal in the downhill at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, on Feb. 10, 2019

In victory, defeat, battling back from crashes and injuries, Vonn will be remembered as a vicious competitor and true champion, who brought the sport of alpine ski racing to the mainstream of American sports.

She left everything on the hill in her final race in her typical - all or nothing - fashion that over her 18-year career brought her 82 World Cup victories; eight World Championship medals, including two gold in downhill and super-G at the 2009 World Champs in Val d’Isere, France; three Olympic medals, including the downhill gold at the 2010 Games in Whistler, Canada; and a record 20 FIS Ski World Cup titles. 

"Anything is possible if you work hard enough!"

- Lindsey Vonn

“Lindsey Vonn will be celebrated as not only the greatest U.S. female skier of all time, but as an athlete who has inspired people around the world, both in and out of the sport of ski racing, for many years,” said Tiger Shaw, President and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “We have been so lucky to have been able to share many of Lindsey’s extraordinary achievements, but now the time is right for Lindsey to call time on her incredible career. On behalf of everyone in the U.S. and throughout the global ski racing community, thank you Lindsey. You have consistently raised the bar, you have created a legacy that will live forever, and you have given us all some of the greatest memories in our sport.”

Here is a look back on Vonn's outstanding career.

The first of two FIS-level Toyota U.S. Rev Tour freeski-snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe competitions took place at Copper Mountain, Colo. Feb. 10-14, and a list of young U.S. freeski and snowboard athletes found great success.

The week kicked off with freeski slopestyle competition on Feb 11. where Ben Barclay of New Zealand finished first, and Americans James Kanzler (Wanship, Utah) and Danya Manyak (Granby, Colo.) finished second and third respectively. In women’s freeski slopestyle, Japan’s Yuna Koga finished first, American Lauren Bendixen (Keystone, Colo.) finished second, and Connie Brogden of Great Britain closed out the podium in third-place.

On Tuesday, Feb 12., freeskiers continued competition in the halfpipe where Hunter Carey (Winter Park, Colo.) claimed the victory. “I feel really good walking away with the win,” said Carey. “I got to watch all the homies send it and to come away on top is amazing. I want to continue having fun, progressing my tricks, and do better and better at more elite level competitions.”

Americans Trista Feinberg (Aspen, Colo.) and Matthew Labaugh (Avon, Colo.) completed the American sweep finishing second and third respectively. In women’s freeski halfpipe, Hanna Faulhaber (Aspen, Colo.) won the competition. “It feels amazing to get first,” said Faulhaber. “it’s super cool to reach the podium, I’m so stoked. It would be great to keep going in the sport of freeskiing and slowly climb the ladder.”

Brogden finished second and Samantha Johnston of New Zealand added to the country’s Rev Tour success with another top-three finish in third.

Next, the snowboarders took to the slopestyle course on Wednesday. Feb. 13. where Ryoma Kimate of Japan topped the podium, Will Healy (Riverside, Conn.) finished second, and Fynn Bullock-Womble (Mebane, N.C.) finished in third. For the women, U.S. Rookie Team member Ty Schnorrbusch (Monroe Township, N.J.) took the victory. “It feels pretty good after being in a competitive slump to finally land a run and come home with the gold,” said Schnorrbusch. “It would be pretty awesome to go to the X Games and the Olympics one day.”

Hinari Asanuma from Japan finished second, and U.S. Rookie Team member Courtney Rummel (West Bend, Wisc.) finished in third.

On Thursday, Feb 14., the final competition went down at the Rev Tour with snowboard halfpipe. American Kolman Lecroy (Big Bear Lake, Calif.) took the win.

“It feels really good to come in first today,” said Lecroy. “I would love to go to the X Games or the Olympics one day. In addition, I also have goals outside of competition to start backcountry filming.”

Bullock-Womble finished second and Fletcher Craig of New Zealand finished in third. For the women, U.S. Rookie Team member Tessa Maud (Carlsbad, Calif.) earned the top spot, Kalli Shafer (Temecula, Calif.) finished second, and Athena Corneau (Rutland, Mass.) finished in third.

The passion and motivation amongst Rev Tour athletes is undeniable. With the improved athlete pipeline throughout the Rev Tour Series, athletes have a chance to compete at the correct level of competition against their peers, continue to improve and climb the competition ladder in an enjoyable atmosphere. The future of snowboarding and freeskiing seems bright with all winning athletes having goals to reach the Olympics, X Games and continuing to progress.

The second and final FIS sanctioned Rev Tour will be held at Seven Springs, Penn. Feb 25. - Mar. 1 with snowboard and freeski slopestyle and halfpipe competitions. In addition, the final Nor-AM sanctioned Rev Tour ElITE event is just around the corner at Mammoth Mountain, Calif. March 12-17 featuring freeski and snowboarding slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air competitions.

RESULTS
FREESKI
Men’s slopestyle
Women’s slopestyle
Men’s halfpipe
Women’s halfpipe

SNOWBOARD
Men’s slopestyle
Women’s slopestyle
Men’s halfpipe
Women’s halfpipe

PHOTOS
https://www.instagram.com/usrevtour/
 

It was a huge day for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team as Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minn.) won Saturday’s FIS Cross Country World Cup sprint to lead six U.S. women into the top 30 in Cogne, Italy. Simi Hamilton (Aspen, Colo.) finished fourth to lead four U.S. men into the top 30.

Diggins advanced through the quarterfinal and the semi-final heats in the lucky loser position to advance to the finals. “Man I’m glad they do lucky loser.  Honestly, there have been lots of ups and downs this year, you don’t know what going to happen, but you have to believe in yourself and keep pushing the whole way.”

Three U.S. athletes qualified for the finals including Hamilton, and Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.), who finishing in fifth.

“I was really thrilled to have finished fifth today,” said Bjornsen. “After a long camp of solid training in Davos, (Switzerland)  it feels good to know my plan to ‘focus my top form on the Championships’ is working out. Any time I make a sprint final means I’m in a place to fight for the podium. A few more days of sharpening up and a mind that is ready to dig even deeper is exactly what I was dreaming of for this time of year.”

Julia Kern (Waltham, Mass.) posted a career-best World Cup result finishing 11th, followed by Sophie Caldwell (Stratton Mountain, Vt.) in 17th; Ida Sargent (Craftsbury, Vt.) 24th; Rosie Brennan (Anchorage, Alaska) 27th; and Kelsey Phinney (Boulder, Colo.) in 33rd.  Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) was 23rd; Logan Henneman (Fairbanks, Alaska) 27th; and Kevin Bolger (Sun Valley, Idaho) 30th.

“Crazy racing out there today,” said Hamilton. “I think people expected less clustered racing because the course was quite hard and at altitude, but there was for sure some wild heats where the pack was just in constant contact with each other.  The final was tough… it’s always tricky coming from the second semifinal with such a short turnaround into the finals, but I’m proud of how I skied it and although fourth is a frustrating place to be, I think it’s a good sign leading into World Champs.”

Italian local Federico Pellegrino won the men’s race, followed by fellow countryman Francesco De Fabiani in second and Lucas Chanavat of France in third. Germany’s Sandra Ringwald was second behind Diggins, followed by Sweden’s Johanna Hagstroem in third.

The team has one final classic distance race in Cogne before heading to the World Championships in Seefeld, Austria, Monday.

RESULTS
Men’s sprint
Women’s sprint

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*Same-day broadcast

Sunday, Feb. 17
3:45 a.m. - Women’s classic 10k - Cogne, ITA - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
6:30 a.m. - Men’s classic 15k - Cogne, ITA - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
9:15 a.m. - Women’s SuperTour freestyle interval start - Minneapolis, Minn. - U.S. Ski & Snowboard Streaming
11:00 a.m. - Men’s SuperTour freestyle interval start - Minneapolis, Minn. - U.S. Ski & Snowboard Streaming
2:00 p.m. - Women’s classic 10k - Cogne, ITA - Olympic Channel-TV*

Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.) won a record fourth-straight FIS Alpine World Ski Championships slalom title with an amazing come-from-behind victory in Are, Sweden, Saturday. Shiffrin’s win was even more impressive considering she was battling not only the best slalom racers in the world but a new opponent - a nasty chest cold.

“Halfway down the (second) run, I ran out of oxygen,” she said. “It was tough today.” It was so tough that at one point before the second run, she coughed so hard that her stomach went into spasms and she couldn’t breathe. Her mother, Eileen Shiffrin, said to her: “You don’t have to do this!”

In the end though, Shiffrin “just figured I had to be tough” for 60-seconds and she credited her team with the victory. “My whole team was around me all day and helping to make sure I was drinking...resting... and not wasting energy” she said.

After finishing third in the opening run, Shiffrin toughed it out and found her groove under the warm afternoon sunshine to absolutely nail the second run, moving into the lead by .72 seconds over Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, and putting significant pressure on the final two racers - Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener.

“I knew I had to fight really hard the second run because Anna and Wendy are too strong, and the girls who were behind me were also really close,” Shiffrin said.

On the second run, Swenn-Larsson was fast up top but lost time to Shiffrin on the lower part of the course. Holdener, meanwhile, held a .15-second lead over Shiffrin, but quickly lost that and much more when she missed a gate just seconds into her run and was forced to ski back uphill in order to make the gate. She eventually finished 17th.

Swenn-Larsson held on to win the silver, her first World Championships medal, and Vlhova won the bronze, her third medal of the 2019 World Championships. With the win, Shiffrin goes down in the history books, becoming the first-ever athlete - male or female - to win in a specific discipline in four consecutive World Championships. Shiffrin’s slalom gold is her fourth-straight, including 2013, 2015 and 2017 World Championships. It is also her third medal of the 2019 World Championships, including the super-G gold and giant slalom bronze.

Paula Moltzan (Prior Lake, Minn.) finished 18th, and Nina O’Brien (San Francisco, Calif.) skied an impressive first run, but missed a gate in the second and was forced to hike. She finished 34th.

Up next, the FIS Ski World Cup circuit resumes with a city event in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday.

RESULTS
Women’s World Championships slalom

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*Same-day broadcast

Saturday, Feb. 16
1:00 p.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships women’s slalom - Are, SWE - NBC*

Sunday, Feb. 17
5:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - NBCSN*
8:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 2 - Are, SWE - NBCSN OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold

Tuesday, Feb. 19
11:30 a.m. - Men and women's city event - Stockholm, SWE - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
11:30 p.m. - Men and women's city event - Stockholm, SWE - NBCSN*

All streams are available via desktop (NBCSports.com/Live, NBCSports.com/Gold andOlympicChannel.com) as well as mobile, tablet and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold app and Olympic Channel app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass.
 

Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) led three Americans with an 11th-place giant slalom finish at the 2019 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Friday. Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.) was right behind in 12th, and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) was 21st.

“That course was just a gunner. It was so, so straight. It’s far from my specialty, that’s for sure.” said Ligety, a three-time giant slalom World Champion, who made an impressive second-run recovery, after going through a panel, to hold on and finish.

“I was going for it...when it’s a night race, with this kind of snow, this much terrain, I was taking a lot of risks,” he said. “I had just one huge mistake that probably cost me the lead at this point. It probably would not have been enough to get a medal. I was just trying to cut line and be clean. There is no margin for error when you’re probably going 60 miles per hour in there. I just got hooked inside a little bit and went through the middle of the panel. When you’re going that fast and something grabs you like that, it just throws you offline. I thought for sure I was going to fall, and then the next thing I knew I was like ‘I’m still in it, I guess.’ That’s just a testament to how straight and open the course was, I still had room to get back in it.”

After finishing fourth in the GS at the 2017 World Champs in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen surprised pre-race favorites Marcel Hirscher of Austria, and Alexis Pinturault of France, to take his first career World Championships gold. Hirscher - who has been ill and had to cancel his press conference earlier this week - held on for second, as first-run leader Pinturault took the bronze.

Athletes were challenged by warm conditions, similar to what the women’s faced in their GS Thursday - without the swirling wind. But in the end, it came down to the course set for Ligety.

“Some courses fit you and some don’t,” said Ligety, who was competing in his seventh World Championships. “I definitely need to work on my straighter course sets because my bread and butter has always been turning, and (straighter course sets) has definitely been more of the trend.”

Ford’s result was a career-best for him after finishing 19th in the giant slalom at the 2015 World Champs in Beaver Creek, Colo., and 14th in the super-G in Garmisch, Germany, in 2011. Cochran-Siegle also posted a career-best World Champs GS result. His previous best was 25th at the 2017 World Champs.

Up next, the men compete in their final event of the 2019 World Championships in slalom Sunday.

RESULTS
Men’s World Championships giant slalom

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*Same-day broadcast
**Next-day broadcast

Saturday, Feb. 16
5:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships women’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships women’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - NBCSN*
8:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships women’s slalom run 2 - Are, SWE - NBCSN OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
1:00 p.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships women’s slalom - Are, SWE - NBC*

Sunday, Feb. 17
5:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 1 - Are, SWE - NBCSN*
8:00 a.m. - FIS World Alpine Championships men’s slalom run 2 - Are, SWE - NBCSN OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold

All streams are available via desktop (NBCSports.com/Live, NBCSports.com/Gold andOlympicChannel.com) as well as mobile, tablet and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold app and Olympic Channel app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass.