Mikaela Shiffrin claims another slalom victory to stay perfect in Olympic season | Mikaela Shiffrin

Mikaela Shiffrin dominated her snow World Cup slalom at home in Colorado on Sunday to remain perfect in the discipline during the Olympic season.

Shiffrin extended her slalom winning streak to four races after also winning the first two races of the season and the final event last season. This is Shiffrin’s 104th World Cup victory and her 67th in slalom, which also extends the discipline record.

Skiing despite moderate snowfall, Shiffrin added to her advantage in the first run and won by 1.57 seconds over German Lena Duerr, who moved up from ninth after the first leg.

“Come on Mikaela, we love you,” said a sign held up by fans in the finish area at Copper Mountain, a half-hour drive from Shiffrin’s hometown of Edwards, Colorado.

“I could hear you from the beginning. Thank you,” Shiffrin told the crowd after the second round. “I felt perfect during that race. It was just incredible.”

Teenager Lara Colturi of Albania moved from fourth place after the first run to third place, 1.85 behind, despite a mistake at the start of her second run. Wendy Holdener finished fourth and Anna Swenn Larsson fifth.

It was Shiffrin’s first World Cup victory in Colorado since winning two slaloms in Aspen in November 2015. In total, 12 of her 104 World Cup victories have come in the United States. Shiffrin also won the slalom at the 2015 World Championships in Vail-Beaver Creek, Colorado, in February of that year.

This is the fourth time in Shiffrin’s career that she has won the first three slaloms of a season. She won the first five slaloms in 2018-19, the first four in 2016-17 and the first three in 2019-20.

Shiffrin is expected to be one of the stars of the Milan Cortina Olympics in February, where women’s alpine skiing will take place in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. At the 2021 Worlds in Cortina, Shiffrin competed in four races and won four medals.

It was an emotional week for Shiffrin, who broke down in tears while watching his fiancée Aleksander Aamodt Kilde return to racing after nearly two years away following serious injuries during a Thanksgiving super-G at Copper Mountain on Thursday.

Shiffrin will compete again next weekend in two giant slaloms in Tremblant, Quebec, before returning to Europe for the remainder of the season.