US ski star Shiffrin dominates 1st World Cup slalom of Olympic season for career win 102

LEVI, Finland: Mikaela Shiffrin opened the Olympic slalom season in convincing style Saturday by dominating a World Cup race in Finnish Lapland for her record-extending 102nd career win.
The American star built on a commanding first-run lead of more than a second, clocked the fastest time again in the final run and won the race by 1.66 seconds from second-placed Lara Colturi.
“It’s for sure a good feeling, it was so nice to race today. I felt really strong on both runs,” said Shiffrin, adding she didn’t want to be too cautious in protecting her big lead.
“I was just feeling like: ‘Oh, don’t mess it up, like it would be embarrassing, kind of.’ But then, in the end, if you are pushing as hard as you can, you can’t mess it up.”
Colturi, an Italian-born prodigy competing for Albania, matched her career-best result.

Colturi turned 19 on Saturday.
All-rounder Emma Aicher placed third, 2.59 behind, for her first podium in a tech race. The German, who turned 22 last Thursday, won a downhill and a super-G last March.
Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan, who finished runner-up in the season-opening giant slalom in Austria three weeks ago, was 2.46 off the lead in 19th but improved to fourth place, which she shared with Aicher’s teammate Lena Duerr.
Shiffrin and Moltzan now rank 1-2 in the overall standings after two races.
Slalom World Cup champion Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia was fourth after the opening run and dropped to sixth.
Shiffrin laid the foundation for her 65th slalom victory with an aggressive first run.
“This was the best run I could do, that was kind of perfect,” Shiffrin said after the opening run, calling it “a wonderful feeling” to replicate some of her best skiing from training.
“The whole summer prep I was focusing