Ski superstar celebrates, DSV suffers
Gigantic Shiffrin crowns record winter with victory
03/19/2023, 1:35 p.m
Ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin wins the giant slalom at the season finale – and with it her 88th World Cup race. It is the culmination of a record winter. For the German women, a disastrous giant slalom winter is finally over.
Ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin crowned her record winter with a win at the season finale in Andorra. The most successful ski racer in alpine history won the giant slalom and celebrated a total of 88 World Cup titles in her career. The 28-year-old already had the small crystal globe for the best giant slalom driver of the winter before the race.
The Colorado athlete was 0.06 seconds ahead of Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund. Third place went to Canadian Valerie Grenier (+0.20). For Shiffrin, the success in Soldeu was the 14th title this season. For comparison: Marco Odermatt won 13 men’s races. In addition, the American won three medals at the World Championships in France, including gold in the giant slalom.
DSV women without points for a whole winter
No driver from the German team could qualify for the season finale. The giant slalom women did not collect a single World Cup point this winter. Since the retirement of Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg, Germany has practically not existed in the alpine basic discipline. “We don’t even create athletes who ride in the extended world class,” said Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier.
The German highlights this winter were provided by Alexander Schmid as world champion in the parallel competition and Lena Dürr as third in the World Cup slalom. Dürr also achieved a win and three more podium finishes in the World Cup. Slalom specialist Linus Straßer and downhill skier Kira Weidle each raced onto the podium twice, while Andreas Sander finished second once in the Super-G. The speed men in particular, who missed top man Thomas Dreßen again for a long time due to injury, became weaker and weaker after a decent start to the season.