Alpine skiing-Vlhova wins World Cup slalom in Slovenia, Shiffrin suffers mishap

Slovakia's Petra Vlhova overcame challenging conditions to win the women's World Cup slalom event on Sunday at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia while American Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish after straddling a gate in her first run.

Vlhova, who fought soft snow and poor visibility, led after the first run and won by 72 hundredths of a second over German Lena Duerr with a two-run total time of one minute and 47.62 seconds for her third victory in six slalom races this season.

American AJ Hurt delivered the performance of her lifetime in the second run as she surged from 16th to third place to secure her first World Cup podium.

Shiffrin, who has been battling a cold this week, failed to finish her first run when her left ski went across the wrong side of a gate during the second section.

"With a straddle, in my mind, it's the worst thing you can do in slalom because it shows that there is something wrong with the timing where the body and brain connection is off or you're skiing conservatively," said Shiffrin.

"I went into the section and I was trying to anticipate what was coming after that, and my mind was ahead of my body and then I straddled and I knew it.

"One split second before it happened I was like 'get yourself back in your moment' but it was too late to make that adjustment."

Despite the straddle, Shiffrin still leads the overall standings and slalom standings, the latter by a mere five points over Vlhova.