Every year, Vermont’s Killington World Cup attracts almost 40,000 viewers.
It’s one of the only races where athletes say they can hear the fans from the top of the course, and those fans, who come from all different parts of the world, had plenty to cheer for this time around.
Mikalea Shiffrin, the highly-decorated American, was projected to win her 100th world cup race on home snow, participating in the first race of the weekend.
From the start of the first run of the giant slalom, Shiffrin and the U.S. women held nothing back, with five American skiers making the top-30 cutoff.
Shiffrin dominated the course, coming in first by 0.32 seconds. Paula Moltzan followed closely in sixth, Nina O’Brien in 10th and Katie Hensien in 21st. Elisabeth Bocock, at just 19 years old, had an incredible run to slot in at eighth.
The crowd was geared up for the second run with so much potential in the top 30.
Hensien came down first for the U.S. in the second run, skiing well and landing 13th — a great result for her. O’Brien had a strong run of her own, commanding the icy conditions and earning a career-best 6th place finish.
Bocock, despite her youth, showed incredible maturity and composure on her second run.
The 19-year-old masterfully skied the top of the course before banging her hand into a gate and losing her pole. She managed to gain back control of her run to notch her first-ever world cup points, finishing in 23rd.
In a similar fashion, Moltzan lost her balance and fell in the backseat, almost costing her the run. However, she recovered well, and earned a personal-best fifth finish in the giant slalom.
As Shiffrin’s second run approached, the crowd at Killington erupted. The fan-favorite took off out of the gate, mistake-free as usual. As she advanced onto the pitch of the course and leaned into the hill though, she crashed into the b-net.
The fans fell into silent shock as Shiffrin was taken off on a sled, later posting on Instagram that her stomach had been punctured in her fall, causing severe muscle tearing.
The injury took Shiffrin out of the Killington slalom, losing her the chance for a 100th win, and keeping her off the skis for at least two weeks, likely longer.
The podium results for the giant slalom found Camille Rast of Switzerland in 3rd — her first world cup podium. Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia came in 2nd for Croatia’s first International Ski and Snowboard Federation world cup podium in 18 years. Sweden’s reigning Olympic Champion, Sara Hector, came 1st.
U.S. fans were disappointed to see a lineup without Shiffrin, but were undoubtedly excited for the rest of the American athletes to take on a slalom course requiring solid technique and aggression throughout.
Bocock, sustaining a wrist injury from the giant slalom, was not able to compete in the slalom event, but the rest of the U.S. women geared up, including Mia Hunt from the University of Denver ski team, who made her world cup debut.
Moltzan pushed through a few mistakes brought on by the icy conditions to finish 15th in the first run. Hensien and O’Brien both fought hard, but landed just outside the qualifying positions. Hunt also missed out, finishing in 44th.
Lena Duerr of Germany skied an amazing run and secured herself in the top spot for the first run. Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden came in second and Rast was third.
In the second run, Moltzan came out of the course with drive and great potential to improve from her first run. She unfortunately slid out, crashed and dislocated her shoulder, requiring a few weeks of rehab before she can return to skiing.
Even being timed down to the hundredth of a second, Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and Swenn Larsson managed to tie in second place. Rast, with an incredible performance on the hill, earned her first ever world cup win.
This was the first time in 28 years that two skiers from Switzerland were on a slalom podium.
While the amount of injuries put a damper on the weekend, the action-packed event delivered in terms of personal bests and milestones, building anticipation for the next time these women hit the slopes.
