Zenhaeusern, Shiffrin win big in Stockholm
Feb 19, 2019·Alpine Skiing
Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland and Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. were the big winners under the lights at the World Cup Stockholm city event to close out this season's competitions in Sweden. The home team boasted its own successes on the evening as well with Andre Myhrer finishing as runner-up in the men's race and Anna Swenn Larsson pushing hard for third place in the ladies' event.
Zenhaeusern successfully defended his victory at Stockholm from 2018 with two clean runs in the big final. He apologized to Swedish fans in attendance for stealing the show from Myhrer, but the men's podium had nothing but respect for one another. Marco Schwarz of Austria, on the tail end of several impressive performances at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, skied to a noteworthy third place. As the winner of the Oslo city event earlier this winter, he was pleased to keep the good vibes going in the parallel disciplines to earn a team event medal in Åre and a podium spot in Stockholm.
Shiffrin, still recovering from the illness that threatened her energy at the World Ski Championships, powered to the big final after overtaking Swenn Larsson by just 0.01 seconds in the semifinal. In the big final, Shiffrin faced Tina Geiger in her first finals heat of a parallel event. Geiger gave impressive chase but ultimately finished in second place for the second podium of her career and the first since 2010.
With her victory, Shiffrin mathematically secured the World Cup slalom discipline crystal globe for the sixth time in her career.
The capacity crowd was enamored with its Swedish stars on the podium and also with Frida Hansdotter who advanced to the small final against Swenn Larsson and finished a very respectable fourth place just behind her teammate.
This was the second and final city event of the 2018/19 season. The only parallel racing that remains on the World Cup calendar is the team event at World Cup Finals in Soldeu (AND) come March.
See complete men's results from tonight's race here.
See complete ladies' results from tonight's race here.
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