Mikaela Shiffrin 10th in injury comeback, Ljutic takes women's slalom in France
American falls short of 100th career World Cup win on Courcheval course
Mikaela Shiffrin finished 10th in a World Cup slalom race on her injury comeback on Thursday, with Croatian racer Zrinka Ljutic winning in style under floodlights in Courchevel, France.
The 21-year-old Ljutic has won three of the past four slaloms. On Thursday, she posted a two-run time of one minute 45.06 seconds, 1.26 seconds ahead of Sweden's Sara Hector (1:46.32) and 1.28 clear of Germany's Lena Duerr (1:46.34).
Shiffrin was 2.04 seconds in arrears of Ljutic. Chasing a record-extending 100th World Cup win, the 29-year-old American was fifth after the first run on the Stade Emile Allais course but struggled with her timing on both runs.
"I didn't come into this race expecting that I was going to win," Shiffrin said. "I have to be at my top, top level. Now we build from here."
Shiffrin crashed on Nov. 30 in a giant slalom in Killington, Vt., and was injured sliding down the mountain. A couple of weeks later, the two-time Olympic gold medalist had abdominal surgery to clean out a puncture wound.
Shiffrin said before this race that she was prioritizing her recovery ahead of chasing the magic 100.
"It was a very important step in my recovery to see how I'm stacking up with the top skiers in the world, and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing," Shiffrin said. "Also before the world championships it was so important to get this start."
WATCH l Ljutic claims 3rd World Cup slalom win of the season:
The worlds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria are next month, where Shiffrin will be eyeing medals in giant slalom and slalom.
"For sure I want to target the GS and slalom and everything really depends on the next 10 days until those races, how it goes with training," she said. "I'm catching up to the fastest in the world so I have a lot of work to do."
St-Germain misses 2nd run, Smart, DQ'd
Ali Nullmeyer of Toronto was top Canadian on Thursday, finishing 13th of 25 finishers in 1:47.33.
World slalom champion Laurence St-Germain of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., placed 36th in the first run in 55.06 — around 3 seconds behind Ljutic — and so did not make the second stint.
Amelia Smart of Invermere, B.C., was disqualified in the opening run.
A massive 62 of Shiffrin's 99 World Cup wins have been in slalom. She cupped her hands and then waved to the crowd after finishing her second run.
No other skier, male or female, has won more than 86 World Cup races.
Having overtaken Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, she needed a podium finish to equal Stenmark's record of 155 World Cup podiums.
She was not quite ready to aim for that.
"It felt challenging and the top women they are are skiing amazing," Shiffrin said. "I am so happy to be back competing with them, hopefully I get faster in the next weeks."
Chasing a seventh straight win in slaloms, Shiffrin was the sixth racer to start at shortly after 5 p.m. local time and with the slightly fading light.
Shiffrin was a bit low on her skis but made up some time on the bottom section, finishing .87 seconds behind first-leg leader Ljutic, who crossed the line in 51.88.
'My timing or rhythm was missing'
"I want to watch the video from the first run. It was like a little bit of my timing or rhythm [was missing] to catch the track in the right way," Shiffrin said. "I had some really good turns and some not fast turns."
A smiling Shiffrin walked over to hug Ljutic as the young Croat sat watching from the leader's chair. Ljutic had to pinch herself after winning a such a dominant race.
"I'm living the dream now so don't wake me up," she said.
Shiffrin's been in Ljutic's position so many times before, but her expectations were more realistic after two months out.
Swiss racer Wendy Holdener was second after the first run but she lost balance and missed a gate early in her second run.
Austrian Katharina Liensberger placed fourth ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast, who won the previous slalom in Flachau.
Rast leads the slalom standings with 450 points ahead of Ljutic on 409 and with Shiffrin in ninth on 226.
Italian Federica Brignone leads the World Cup standings, with Shiffrin down in 17th.
With files from CBC Sports
