Mikaela Shiffrin maintains perfect start to Olympic season with third slalom win

Mikaela Shiffrin continued her stellar start to the Olympic season with a third straight slalom World Cup win of the season, dominating on home snow in Copper Mountain for a record-extending 104th victory on the circuit.

The American has won every slalom event of the season so far, beginning her season with victory in Levi, Finland and Gurgl, Austria. She is on a run of four consecutive wins after taking victory in the final race of last season too.

The two-time Olympic champion finished 1.57 seconds clear of Germany’s Lena Duerr, expertly navigating her way through moderate snowfall to extend her discipline record of World Cup slalom wins to 67.

Albanian teenager Lara Colturi continued her own strong start to the season with a third place finish, 1.85 seconds behind, moving up from fourth despite a mistake early in her second run.

This was Shiffrin’s first World Cup win in Colorado since she won two slaloms in Aspen in late 2015. The 30-year-old was born in Colorado and still lives a half-hour drive away from Copper Mountain, in Edwards, with thousands of fans cheering for their local favourite on Sunday.

“I could hear you guys from the start. Thank you,” Shiffrin told the crowd. “I felt perfect this run. This was was just lights-out amazing.”

Shiffrin finished 14th in the giant slalom on Saturday but was back to her best for Sunday’s slalom, and looks in peak form for another tilt at Olympic glory in Milan-Cortina in February.

She will continue her season with the giant slalom in Tremblant, Quebec next weekend.