As Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) piled up the Slalom victories this season, with several of her main rivals out of form or injured, the question leading into the Olympic Winter Games became: could anyone rise up and challenge her?
The answer has finally arrived, and it’s Camille Rast (SUI/Head).
Rast broke Shiffrin’s stranglehold on this season’s Slalom campaign on Sunday in Kranjska Gora, ending an emotional week in which she also won her first World Cup Giant Slalom race on Saturday, three days after the tragic New Year’s Eve fire in her home town of Crans-Montana.
Wearing a black armband for the second day in a row to commemorate the victims of the fire, Rast became the first woman to defeat Shiffrin in Slalom this season at the sixth time of asking.
Leading Shiffrin by 0.10 seconds after the first leg, Rast watched from the top of the mountain as the greatest Slalom skier in history put down an incredible second run, and then the Swiss racer somehow topped it to win by 0.14 seconds.
Rast’s teammate Wendy Holdener (SUI/Head) finished third, but trailed the leading duo by nearly two seconds.
