Beijing 2022: Women’s slalom preview

Tomorrow marks one of the most anticipated showdown races of the Olympics, the women’s slalom. All eyes will be on rivals, Petra Vlhova (SVK) and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) as they battle it out on the hill to try and claim the title of Olympic champion.

Heading into the race, Vlhova, who has been dominating the World Cup slalom scene, has already won five out of the seven. She earned enough points to push far enough in front of the other competitors to have already claimed the slalom Crystal Globe. Nonetheless, the Slovakian seemed to be having some trouble with the snow conditions in Yanging (CHN) and placed 14th in the women’s GS.

Rival, Mikaela Shiffrin, also had some troubles during the women’s GS where she didn’t manage to finish her race. The six-time slalom globe winner and 2014 slalom Olympic champion will surely want to remedy her misfortunes and push for the gold. Shiffrin is currently sitting in 2nd in the slalom World Cup standings after winning two slalom races and finishing second in another three. Knowing that Vlhova has already claimed the slalom globe, this will be the American’s last chance to claim a slalom title this season.

Swiss skier, Wendy Holdener is no stranger to an Olympic slalom race. In 2018, she won silver in the women’s slalom in PyeongChang (KOR). So far this season, Holdener has placed twice on the podium with her best slalom result being 2nd.

Current slalom World Champion, Katharina Liensberger (AUT) will also be pushing hard to claim an Olympic podium finish. Currently sitting in 5th in the slalom World Cup standings, Liensberger has placed in the top 10 in five of the slalom World Cup races this season, which included two podium finishes (2nd and 3rd).

Lena Duerr (GER), who has claimed three 3rd place slalom results this season, will be fighting for her share of the action.

The first run is scheduled to start at 10:15 local time / 03:15 CET and the second run is scheduled to start at 13:45 local time / 06:45 CET.