Aspen, CO – Sixteen-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin was calm, cool and collected as the notched a top-10 finish in only her second Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom in Sunday’s Nature Valley Aspen Winternational. Austrian Marlies Schild, the defending World Cup slalom champion, won for the second time in Aspen.

Schilds was 1.19 seconds faster than Sweden’s Maria Pietilae-Holmner, who placed second, and Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who finished another 0.77 seconds back.

Shiffrin, who has yet to get her drivers’ licence, turned a bib 37 start — her second ever on the World Cup circuit — into a stunning eighth place finish and immediately began thanking young fans in the crowd for coming to see her and the U.S. Ski Team race in Aspen. The result, an extreme surprise for the Eagle, Colo. resident, extends her string of great performances after she became the youngest U.S. Champion in history when she captured the slalom title last March in Winter Park, Colo.

“All I can say is this is unreal. I’ll for sure be excited for the next five months, but it’s also probably going to take five years to even realize that I’m racing World Cup,” said Shiffrin following her result on Sunday. “I’ve been watching all these athletes studiously to try and figure out how I can get to their level. I know that will never change. This is a great accomplishment, but I still have a long ways to go. I’ll try to keep things grounded and keep moving forward.”

America’s most watched ski racer, Lindsey Vonn, opted not to start Sunday’s slalom in favor of resting a sore back until the first women’s speed events of the World Cup season next weekend in Lake Louise, two downhills and a super G.

Sunny skies covered the course all day.  The race crew was able to once again prepare a technical and fast slalom course which was deemed incredibly technical and challenging.

“I like the snow, it’s pretty technical, I like the terrain. The GS course was pretty tight and snow was gripping,” said Pietilae-Holmner, the second place finisher. “I have had a lot of places but not a lot of podiums, and today I just wanted to ski and not think too much.”

Sunday’s race was a huge confidence booster for Canada’s women’s team as Quebec’s Marie-Michèle Gagnon and Anna Goodman each recorded top 20 finishes despite struggling on their second runs. Goodman, whose career-best World Cup result is a ninth-place finish in 2009, was eighth after a storming first run but slowed down at the bottom of her second run to finish in 20^th overall. Gagnon, meanwhile, was 10^th after the first run and held it together on the second for an 11^th-place finish.

“Anna (Goodman) had an incredible first run. I think our whole team is pumped,” said Gagnon. “The first run I really went all out – I attacked. I didn’t get into the rhythm right away but then at the bottom I totally crushed it. On the second run, it was pretty good skiing but it was missing some oomph. It’s a really good start for me. It was not my best skiing and I was still 11^th.”

Goodman is finally feeling healthy again after battling hip and knee injuries in recent seasons.

“On my first run I skied really well,” she said. “The first half of my second run was really good – I just didn’t ski well on the bottom part. I know I’m skiing well – especially coming back from two big injuries.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Aspen Winternational – Aspen, Colo. – Nov. 27, 2011
Women’s Slalom