She did not disappoint. Favorite of the race, Mikaela Shiffrin won the giant slalom of the alpine skiing world championships, Thursday February 16, in Méribel (Savoie). The American won ahead of the Italian Federica Brignone (silver medal, 12 hundredths) and the Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel (bronze medal, 22 hundredths). Well placed for the podium, 12 hundredths from Shiffrin on the first track, the Frenchwoman Tessa Worley fell at the end of the second run.
“I couldn’t believe it because I imagined myself ‘screwing up’ everything and losing in the second set.acknowledged the American after the race. I pushed as hard as I could. At the end I was in disbelief, I felt proud and also lucky […] Today was really amazing, I will remember it all my life. »
At 27, Mikaela Shiffrin, who succeeds the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami in giant slalom, adds a seventh title and a 13e world medal, after the silver in super-G a week ago, to his immense record. She equals on the shelves of the Worlds the Frenchwoman Marielle Goitschel (seven times world champion in the 1960s), but remains a good distance, however, from the 15 medals including 12 coronations of the German Christl Cranz before the war, another era.
The American also achieved the rare performance of winning gold in a fourth different discipline after slalom (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019), super-G (2019) and combined (2021).
Surprise departure of his trainer
Shiffrin has everything to become the big star of these Worlds. And nothing will deflect it from its trajectory. Not even her surprise announcement on Wednesday, in which she declared to separate at the end of the season from her historic coach, yet for more than seven years by her side and, somewhere, responsible for her many successes. Furious to learn of his dismissal during the Worlds, Mike Day immediately left the Savoyard station.
Imperturbable, the American has also been a master on skis since the start of the season. At the end of January, she took down her 85 in the slalom in Spindleruv Mlyn (Czech Republic).e victory in the World Cup, three units more than his compatriot Lindsey Vonn and only one less than the absolute record of the Swede Ingemar Stenmark.
With eleven successes this winter, no one doubts his ability to wipe out this legendary brand by the end of the season in March at Soldeu (Andorra). The Vail skier has already put both hands on the big globe, as her lead (more than 700 points) in the general classification of the World Cup seems unrecoverable.
By then, Mikaela Shiffrin could add a new line to her track record in Savoie. The American will once again be the most serious candidate for the title of world champion in slalom, Saturday February 18, in Méribel.
Tessa Worley wanted to ‘go get something big’
Second in the first round of the giant slalom at the Worlds, Tessa Worley saw her hopes of a podium, or even a title, vanish on Thursday February 16, after leaving the track in the final wall of the second route. The skier from Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie) did not seem down after the race, but admitted to feeling ” disappointment “especially in front of the French public.
“I wanted to cross this line by having given everything and being proud of myself. It is, but it ended too quickly. I really tried hard, to play for the victory (…). I imagined myself in front of these bleachers filled with French people singing the Marseillaise…”, she said in the mixed zone.
The leader of French women’s skiing, however, assures that she still has, for the last stages of the World Cup, “beautiful races to experience, especially in super-G, where [elle s’]bursts “. “It is certain that it will not have the same flavor for me as these fifteen days in Méribel. It’s hard that it’s already over. »
The one who wanted, this Thursday in the Savoyard resort, “go get something big again” will have the opportunity to remobilize from the super-G in Crans Montana (Switzerland), on February 26. Tessa Worley has in any case said nothing about her retirement. “I didn’t want to ask myself this question before the World Championships. (…) We’ll see after the finals [de la Coupe du monde], in Soldeu, in Andorra, from March 13 to 19.