Vlhova picks up slalom win in Lienz

Petra Vlhova ended 2021 in grand fashion, earning the victory at the Audi FIS women’s World Cup slalom in Lienz (AUT). It was Vlhova’s 15th career slalom World Cup victory.

The three podium winners were separated by a mere 0.24 seconds after the first run, setting up a thriller for the second run.

Vlhova held the bragging rights after the first run. She had a 0.08 second lead ahead of Switzerland’s Michele Gisin, who ended the day also with a podium finish in third place.

Finishing between Vlhova and Gisin was a bit of Cinderella story, at least in pandemic times, as Katharina Liensberger (AUT) came back directly from a Covid-19 infection to take second place, 0.51 seconds off the winning pace. An impressive comeback for the Austrian ace.

Gisin was also a surprise podium winner. The Swiss racer hasn’t logged much training time for the discipline this season, focusing instead on the giant slalom and speed events, but she looked very solid today.

Also putting in a good performance was Katharina Truppe, who climbed nine places in the second run to finish I fourth place.

“It feels good today,” said Vlhova after the win. “It wasn’t easy, it was tough. There were a lot of us close together after the first run. Conditions were perfect and the settings for both runs were not easy. At the end I am happy to get another victory.  I have confidence in my slalom skiing right now.”

Today’s race closes out action for the 2021 calendar year. The tour will take a small break to ring in 2022 and return to action for another slalom in Zagreb on January 4th.