Flachau, Austria – Seventeen-year-old Coloradoan Mikaela Shiffrin spent the day on Wednesday doing high school homework, then she won the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup night slalom in Flachau for a historic third win of her incredible young career.
“My secret is to not let anything stop me. Sometimes the crowd gets into your head and all of a sudden you’re nervous but instead I just let them take me to the finish,” said Shiffrin. “Apparently my mark is the bottom of the course and not the top. You know how when three- or four-year-olds run around all day and they just don’t get tired? That’s kind of like me, so at the end of the course, I’m like a three-year-old and I just keep going. I guess it works.”
Swede Frida Hansdotter finished second and Tanja Poutianen of Finland – the oldest racer on the women’s tour – was third. The victory featured the largest purse on the women’s World Cup, earning Shiffrin just over $58,500.
“What else does a 17-year-old have to do with this much money?” Shiffrin asked rhetorically. “I could buy a car but I’m not allowed to drive yet. I’m really close to graduating high school, so I guess I’ll use it to pay for college.”
The stunning .85-second victory drew immediate comparisons to Austrian great Annmarie Moser-Proell, who won her third World Cup race at exactly the same age – to the day (17 years 308 days). Moser-Proell would go on to win a women’s World Cup record 62 races over the course of her 11 year career.
Shiffrin, who was voted World Cup Rookie of the Year last season by her peers, poured on speed throughout her final run to extend her lead in the discipline to 81 points as first run leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany went out in the second run and World Cup overall leader Tina Maze of Slovenia finished fifth. She is now fifth in the overall World Cup standings with teammates Lindsey Vonn sixth and Julia Mancuso eighth. Neither Vonn nor Mancuso started in Flachau.
The women’s World Cup now shifts back to speed events in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy with a downhill and super G.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Flachau, Austria – Jan. 15, 2013
Women’s Slalom
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | FIS Points |
| 1 | 1 | SHIFFRIN Mikaela | 1995 | USA | 55.26 | 56.19 | 1:51.45 | 0.00 |
| 2 | 4 | HANSDOTTER Frida | 1985 | SWE | 55.79 | 56.51 | 1:52.30 | 4.73 |
| 3 | 2 | POUTIAINEN Tanja | 1980 | FIN | 55.88 | 56.67 | 1:52.55 | 6.12 |
| 4 | 19 | SWENN-LARSSON Anna | 1991 | SWE | 56.20 | 56.37 | 1:52.57 | 6.23 |
| 5 | 3 | MAZE Tina | 1983 | SLO | 56.08 | 56.63 | 1:52.71 | 7.01 |
| 6 | 22 | SCHILD Bernadette | 1990 | AUT | 56.05 | 56.80 | 1:52.85 | 7.79 |
| 7 | 9 | PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria | 1986 | SWE | 56.60 | 56.73 | 1:53.33 | 10.46 |
| 8 | 21 | ZAHROBSKA Sarka | 1985 | CZE | 56.79 | 56.59 | 1:53.38 | 10.74 |
| 9 | 43 | GISIN Michelle | 1993 | SUI | 58.03 | 55.41 | 1:53.44 | 11.07 |
| 10 | 11 | MIELZYNSKI Erin | 1990 | CAN | 56.71 | 56.88 | 1:53.59 | 11.90 |