{"id":31122,"date":"2016-03-21T08:01:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T15:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/shiffrin-wins-by-huge-margin-at-wcup-finals\/"},"modified":"2016-03-21T08:01:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T15:01:44","slug":"shiffrin-wins-by-huge-margin-at-wcup-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/shiffrin-wins-by-huge-margin-at-wcup-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiffrin wins by huge margin at WCup finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland \u2014 <\/strong>What might have been for American Mikaela Shiffrin.<\/p>\n

She won another slalom event by a huge margin Saturday, with her closest rivals more than two seconds slower at the season-ending World Cup finals.<\/p>\n

Veronika Velez-Zuzulova and newly crowned World Cup winner Frida Hansdotter could only smile wryly as Shiffrin crossed the line after another monstrous run from the Olympic champion.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Shiffrin is unbeaten in slalom racing since February 2015. But she missed five races during a two-month injury layoff and couldn\u2019t capture a fourth successive crystal globe in the discipline.<\/p>\n

Shiffrin didn\u2019t celebrate after her fifth slalom victory of the season and her 19th in total, surpassing Sweden\u2019s Anja Parson for fifth place among women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to say \u2018what if\u2019 too much because maybe in a parallel universe maybe I won a fourth globe,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cBut we\u2019re living in this world and Frida won and I think she really deserves it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if I didn\u2019t get injured, I would have struggled with my speed or something. It happened the way it did and I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansdotter of Sweden clinched the World Cup slalom title earlier this month with a race to spare. Velez-Zuzulova was runner-up, with Switzerland\u2019s Wendy Holdener third in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels amazing. It\u2019s been a great season. To have this globe is a dream,\u201d Hansdotter said. \u201cI always ski pretty good. My level has been high all season. That\u2019s why I\u2019m standing here as No. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Shiffrin) is skiing so good, she\u2019s an amazing girl. It\u2019s sad that she was injured. She came back strong and for sure we need to find something for next year to beat her or even to do a battle because she\u2019s skiing too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shiffrin is the first woman to win more than three races in one discipline in a season but fail to reach the podium of the final standings. Shiffrin had hopes of challenging for the overall title before her training mishap in Sweden.<\/p>\n

She admits it was bittersweet as a bystander when the crystal globe was handed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad that I was able to ski well today and win another slalom, but definitely there\u2019s a sweet spot in my heart for getting the globe,\u201d she said. \u201cSo watching (Hansdotter) get it, I have to say I was bummed, but at the same time I\u2019m really, really happy for her because I know the feeling of holding that in your hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in her shoes, all you can do is smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a tough second run for many of the favorites as Nastastia Noens and Nina Loeseth, who were second and fourth after the first run, failed to finish.<\/p>\n

Noens was second, 0.72 behind Shiffrin after the first run, but crashed just after the second intermediate check. The race was interrupted as the French skier received treatment before leaving on a stretcher.<\/p>\n

Shiffrin was on her back in the start area with her arms outstretched as she waited for her turn. The interruption didn\u2019t impact another solid run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to end the season on top and it was a really great run, so I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was philosophical about her margin of victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems like I\u2019m able to be connected with my skis better and move quicker, the rhythm changes don\u2019t get me as much, and so it all adds up,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cTwo seconds is a lot, but it\u2019s not that much. So I could easily see them figuring that out and coming right back and beating me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland \u2014 What might have been for American Mikaela Shiffrin. She won another slalom event by a huge margin Saturday, with her closest rivals more than two seconds slower at the season-ending World Cup finals. Veronika Velez-Zuzulova and newly crowned World Cup winner Frida Hansdotter could only smile wryly as Shiffrin crossed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31122"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}