Vlhova wins slalom opening in Levi

The battle was on again, and for the first slalom race of the season, the winner was Petra Vlhova.

The Slovakian champion put together two perfect runs on an ideal slope under the polar lights of Finland, a country particularly dear to the Slovakian ace who decided to spend the last three weeks there to prepare herself at best for these races.

The two slalom queens, Petra and Mikaela, now have the same number of reindeer, with four each. No skier other than Vlhova or Shiffrin has won the traditional season-opening slalom since then-overall champion Tina Maze triumphed in 2014.

Vlhova led Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) by .11 of a second after the first run, then pulled away to prevail by 0.31. Lena Dürr (GER) finished .84 behind in third for the German skier's second career podium result, nearly nine years after winning a city event in Moscow.

Andreja Slokar (SLO), who won the parallel event last week, was 1.12 behind in fourth, followed by Anna Swenn Larsson (SWE), who was one-hundredth of a second further back in fifth. The Swedish skier returned from an injury to compete in her first World Cup race in 21 months. Katharina Liensberger (AUT), 2020-21 Slalom Globe winner, was 1.28 behind in sixth.

Tomorrow there will be another chance to make up for it!