ARE, Sweden – All Mikaela Shiffrin was really looking for in her first race after a six-week injury layoff was “good skiing.”
However, what he got was, even by the American star's standards, “a crazy way to come back.”
Shiffrin made a triumphant return to the World Cup on Sunday, dominating the penultimate slalom of the season to claim her 96th career victory and secure her record-tying eighth title of the season in the discipline.
Running for the first time since injuring her left knee in a downhill crash in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion posted the fastest times in both races to beat Croatian prodigy Zrinka Ljutic by an impressive 1.24 seconds and into third place. Michelle Gisin from Switzerland by 1.34.
“It feels like we're in a dream right now,” Shiffrin said after her sixth slalom victory of the season and 59th overall. “There's been a lot of uncertainty leading up to this race. The biggest goal I had was just… skiing well in the last few races of the season, so I can show that I have the right pace and the right mentality to close.” the season, so next year I will start in a better place.
Shiffrin achieved much more than that. While he bested his competitors in the first leg, he crushed the rest in a fluid second race.
“This is a crazy way to come back,” he said. “It was really nice to race again today and some nerves and all the emotions I expected to feel. Really proud of my team, and certainly proud of myself for coming back here and showing the ski. The second race was part of my “It's my best ski. “I'm very happy to be able to do it again this season.”
Shiffrin had been out since spraining the medial collateral ligament and tibiofibular ligament in her knee in January while still recovering from a bone bruise she suffered earlier in the season.
The American, who turns 29 on Wednesday, was among a host of world, Olympic and world champions who clashed hard in a packed January program, including her partner, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
“The season has been wild, full of ups and downs, I think for everyone,” Shiffrin said. “On my personal journey, there have definitely been some frustrating moments in the last few weeks, so I was just trying to get back and hoping I can get back.”
Shiffrin had only “four normal slalom sessions in the last seven weeks” before Sunday's race.
“I was pushing the whole time, and when I feel the knee, it doesn't distract me from skiing or pushing my skis, so that's perfect,” he said. “I felt really good on my first ski race, but if I could be a little bit cleaner, I'd feel better, also on my knee, so this race was like… I wouldn't change a thing.”
With Slovak rival Petra Vlhova out for the season after knee surgery, the American's only remaining rival for the slalom season title was Lena Duerr.
The German skier had to win both Sunday's race and the season-ending slalom at the World Cup final in Austria next weekend to stay in contention, but she finished fourth, 1.35 behind Shiffrin.
The season title is Shiffrin's eighth in slalom, making her the fourth skier to win eight crystal globes (the traditional prize in alpine skiing) in a single classification.
Former American teammate Lindsey Vonn accomplished the feat in downhill. In the men's category, Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher won eight overall championships, and Swede great Ingemar Stenmark achieved that many titles in both slalom and GS.
Slalom makes up half of the American's collection of 16 world championships, along with her five overall championships, one super G title and two GS titles.
The slalom title will be Shiffrin's only world title this season. She skipped Saturday's giant slalom on the same hill and will not compete in the finals' sprint events, leaving her without enough races to close the 345-point gap to leader Lara Gut-Behrami.
The Swiss star, who does not compete in slalom, has all but secured her second overall title, after winning it for the first time in 2016, and is also a strong favorite to win the downhill, superG and GS titles.
Shiffrin had already returned victorious from an extensive midseason layoff to recover from a knee injury. He didn't race for nine weeks after being injured in December 2015, but won his comeback race in a slalom in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in February 2016.
The World Cup finals for both women and men will conclude the season over the next two weeks in Saalbach, the Austrian host of the 2025 world championship.
