Slalom, March 12
Marlies Schild owned women’s slalom skiing all winter.
This season, the 27-year-old Austrian won all six of the World Cup
slaloms she finished (she had two DNFs) and took the World Cham-
pionships title.
She claimed the World Cup slalom title in Spindleruv Mlyn, the third
slalom globe of her career (2011, 2007, 2008) and her first since suf-
fering a badly broken left leg at the beginning of the 2009 season.
“It feels amazing,” said Schild, who stands second all-time among
women for slalom wins behind Swiss great Vreni Schneider’s 33. “I
think in 2007 I won seven slaloms and now I won six and the gold
medal at the World Championships. It’s great to be on the top of the
podium again. I can do what I want and I’m fast and that is very good
feeling.”
She certainly did what she wanted as the last racer down the course
in the second run, turning a 0.18-second lead in the first run into a
0.93-second wining margin over teammate and Worlds silver medalist
Kathrin Zettel. The win, Schild’s second in Spindleruv Mlyn, marked
her 29th career World Cup victory and gave her 600 points in the dis-
cipline standings, putting her out of reach with one slalom remaining
on the schedule.
Slovenian Tina Maze was 1. 16 seconds back in third for her seventh
podium of the season across four disciplines.
The standings sheet got even more exciting in the overall rankings
as Vonn climbed to within 23 points of Riesch (who had a second-run
DNF) with a 16th-place finish. It was her first finish in a World Cup
slalom race in five attempts; her mid-season slalom slump included a
chain of four consecutive first-run exits. The last two remaining com-
petitors for this season’s overall title hadn’t been this close since Vonn
last held the lead by three points in late December.
“The second run didn’t really go as well as I’d hoped but it was a
tough course and I’m really happy that I made it down and got some
points and got some confidence,” said Vonn. “I honestly never expect-
ed this weekend would happen. I was hoping to stay as close to Maria
as possible but to make as many points as I did this weekend was
definitely above my expectations. I just keep trying to ski aggressively
and confidently and it just goes to show that anything can happen in
ski racing.”
GEPA
