Reigning Olympic and world champion Mikaela Shiffrin produced a blistering run in the first leg of the World Championships slalom Saturday, finishing ahead of Frida Hansdotter and Sarka Strachova.
The 19-year-old American clocked a time of 50.07 seconds as she blitzed the field of 120 ski racers to take a 0.40sec lead into the afternoon session.
Sweden’s Hansdotter, who leads the World Cup slalom standings this season, finished in a time of 50.47sec with Czech Strachova another 0.04sec behind.
“I did get rid of some of the nerves,” said Shiffrin of her first run. “I have been trying to train for the past three weeks on some courses with a bit softer snow and a little slushy and that is shaping up to what the conditions are going to be like for the second run. So I prepared really well and I am ready to go.”
Austria’s Michaela Kirchgasser had the fourth fastest time of 50.84sec and Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who already has two gold medals in the Beaver Creek worlds, finished fifth.
Shiffrin skied brilliantly in her signature event on Saturday in front of a standing room only crowd at the finish of the Birds of Prey course.
Maze was first out of the gate with her 50.92sec but then Shiffrin skied next and blew Maze’s time away by finishing almost a second ahead of the Slovenian.
Shiffrin is seeking to become just the third woman to win the slalom title in back-to-back Worlds and the first world champion to win on home snow since 1997 when Deborah Compagnoni did it in Sestriere, Italy.
Shiffrin stormed out of the gate, shimmied her way through the middle gates, then gained speed at the bottom before leaning across the finish line to a deafening roar from the 4,000-strong pro-US crowd.
“She skied today like she has skied the whole season,” Austria’s Kirchgasser said of Shiffrin. “She has had a lot of pressure and I am really happy for her.”