The amazing Mikaela Shiffrin won her first FIS World Cup Super-G race on Sunday at Lake Louise (CAN) and made history by becoming the first-ever skier to win a World Cup race in all six disciplines!
Shiffrin won her 46th World Cup and while she has dominated the Slalom, she also now has wins in the Downhill, Giant Slalom, Parallel Slalom, Combined and now the Super-G.
“This morning when I woke up I thought ‘Well, let’s see what I can do!’” Shiffrin said. “I just skied very aggressively, I wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to find speed. And whatever line I was going to take, I was going to use it to find speed. It felt amazing. My set-up was absolutely perfect. Thank you to my team, my serviceman, and my sponsors. Amazing.”
Her performance was breathtaking. A hard pace was set by Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, last season’s World Cup Giant Slalom winner, who was the first skier. Shiffrin came 12th in the order and was only eighth at the first checkpoint. But she was fastest from then on and won by a staggering 0.77 seconds over Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel, who skied into second place from the no. 19 spot on the start list.
“It was one of my big goals to win in every discipline when I first started racing … one of those goals that you don’t think you’re ever going to achieve, and it’s incredible,” Shiffrin added. “This season I’m still going to race just some super-Gs, but here in Lake Louise, I have a really good feeling.”
Sunday’s Super-G was the third of three days of racing, with two Downhills preceding. Until Shiffrin re-wrote the history books, the star of the weekend was Austria’s Nicole Schmidhofer, who won both of the Downhill races. This was her World Cup breakthrough. Even though she won the 2017 World Championship in the Super-G, she owned just four World Cup medals prior to the weekend: three bronzes and a silver (and only one medal in a Downhill). But with her first two wins under her belt, look for more from this 29-year-old this season.
The other impressive skier on the weekend was Swiss Michelle Gisin, who won a silver and a bronze in the two Downhills. Summaries:
FIS Alpine World Cup
Lake Louise (CAN) ~ 30 November-2 December 2018
(Full results here)
Women’s Downhill I: 1. Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT), 1:48.13; 2. Michelle Gisin (SUI), 1:48.28; 3. Kira Weidle (GER), 1:48.63; 4. Stephanie Venier (AUT), 1:48.70; 5. Tina Weirather (LIE), 1:48.72. Also in the top 25: 9. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), 1:49.36.
Women’s Downhill II: 1. Schmidhofer (AUT), 1:47.68; 2. Cornelia Huetter (AUT), 1:48.12; 3. Gisin (SUI), 1:48.15; 4. Shiffrin (USA), 1:48.31; 5. Nicol Delago (ITA), 1:48.41. Also in the top 25: 21. Alice Merryweather (USA), 1:49.75.
Women’s Super-G: 1. Shiffrin (USA), 1:19.41; 2. Mowinckel (NOR), 1:20.18; 3. Viktoria Rebensburg (GER), 1:20.24; 4. Ramona Siebenhofer (AUT), 1:20.25; 5. Valerie Grenier (CAN), 1:20.29.
