Shiffrin wins first women's World Cup race in Levi

Alpine skiing is not now one of the parade sports of the Germans, although Germany always produces excellent racers. All the more impressive was the clear lead of Germany's Lena Dürr after the first run, who opened up an impressive lead of 0.55 seconds over the American and "habitual winner" Mikaela Shiffrin and relegated her to third place. The usual suspects such as Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson or even Switzerland's Wendy Holdener were in waiting positions in the top field.

But in alpine skiing, too, there are signs of a kind of generational change, with many new names in the top 20 who have never or hardly been heard of before. For example, Ana Bucik from Slovenia, Zrinka Ljutic from Croatia, Hanna Aronsson Elfman from Sweden and Charlie Guest from Great Britain made it into the top 10 in the first run, followed by Thea Louise Stjernsesund from Norway, Leona Popovic from Croatia, Martina Dubovska from the Czech Republic and Ali Nullmeyer from Canada. So this can no longer be a coincidence. more and more young female skiers are joining the ranks to replace the old stars and take their place.

In cloudy weather in early-dark Finland, the racers set out to conquer the course ahead of them as quickly as possible. As expected, the favorites showed themselves to be strong, because they know that in the slalom, both runs really have to be excellent in order to be on the podium in the end. Mikaela Shiffrin delivered the best time and thus made the victory in today's slalom race clear. Her toughest competitor Petra Vlhova made up one place with the second best time and stood in third place alongside Shiffrin and Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson. German Lena Dürr was the last to start the race, probably understood to be first after the first run. But she fluffed, perhaps wanting it too much, perhaps tensing up at the thought of the near victory, and delivered the 14th best time, 1.30 seconds behind the best time of the second run by Mikaela Shiffrin, which was a clear disappointment. In the end this meant 4th place or 50 World Cup points. She will certainly be annoyed. At the end of this first women's ski race, the well-known favorites showed up in front, at the same time we got to know many new racers who have what it takes to be on the podium in the future.