US ski star Shiffrin leads 2nd World Cup slalom of Olympic season after opening run

GURGL, Austria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin and Lara Colturi went 1-2 again in the opening run of the second women’s World Cup slalom of the Olympic season Sunday, replicating the result from last week’s race.

Racing in sunny but cold conditions on a course set by her coach Janne Haarala, Shiffrin finished 0.31 seconds ahead of the Italian teenager, who competes for Albania.

Swiss racers Camille Rast, who is the slalom world champion, and Wendy Holdener shared third place and needed to make up 0.48 on the American later Sunday.

Lena Duerr in fifth was the only other racer to finish less than a second off the lead. Her German teammate Emma Aicher, who was third last week, stood 10th.

“It’s quite an interesting one today. With the cold temperatures and the dry snow, it’s such a different feeling under the feet,” said Shiffrin, who beat Colturi by 1.66 in the season-opening slalom in Finland eight days earlier.

Colturi, the daughter of 2002 Olympic super-G champion Daniela Ceccarelli, was just a few hundredths behind Shiffrin in the steep middle part of the course, but the American gained nearly a quarter of a second in the flat final section.

“It’s like finding the balance between pushing really hard and then managing the speed a little bit. And I did a good job,” Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin is aiming for her 66th World Cup win in slalom and 103 overall, both are records.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing