the American Mikaela Shiffrin wins in Austria and achieves the double

Nothing can stop Mikaela Shiffrin. The American skier won the Semmering giant slalom on Wednesday December 28, her second giant victory in two days in the Austrian resort. With this 79^e victory in the World Cup, the fifth this winter and the third in a row after the super-G in Saint-Moritz (Switzerland) in mid-December, the American rushes at 27 years old towards the records of her compatriot Lindsey Vonn (82 successes ) and Swede Ingemar Stenmark (86).

Yet uncomfortable in the second round, the quadruple winner of the big crystal globe on Wednesday dominated the Swiss world champion Lara Gut-Behrami by 10 hundredths of a second and the Italian specialist Marta Bassino by 47 hundredths.

Exceptional at the top of the course, Shiffrin made several mistakes that did not prevent her from winning again, illustrating the influence she has on the world circuit at the start of the season. In the general classification, she now has 305 points – more than three victories – ahead of the Italian Sofia Goggia, who skipped the Austrian stage.

Almost the same podium as yesterday with a variation in the center ?????? 1️⃣ @MikaelaShiffrin 7️⃣9️⃣ World Cup vic… https://t.co/JbXouWBW38

— fisalpine (@FIS Alpine)

“I tried to ski well”

“When you race twice in a row on the same track and you succeed in the first race, it’s both easier for the second but also harder for me because I’m more stressed. […] I tried to just ski well, which worked”Shiffrin said after the race.

With five wins in eleven starts this winter, the skier from Colorado, who left empty-handed from the Beijing Olympics in February, already has as much success as she did last season. With a slalom scheduled for Thursday, the American has the opportunity to achieve the same hat-trick as in 2016 (two victories in giant, one in slalom) in the resort of Lower Austria.

In third place of the day, Marta Bassino validated her sixth consecutive podium as a giant, a symbol of her good form. Encouraging fourth on Tuesday, Frenchwoman Tessa Worley missed out on Wednesday with a disappointing 10^e up (at 1 sec 95.