Today is round two and really the main event of these games from a women's alpine perspective. Neither woman got off to the start she would've wanted and the pressure on each has been ratcheted up.
Course Info
The course is situated in the Xiaohaituo Mountain Area in northwest Yanqing about 100km northwest of Beijing in the Yanqing District which is sandwiched between the Yellow Sea and the Gobi Desert.
Due to covid-19 none of the racers and coaches had seen the venue before last week. But the snow surface created and prepared by Tommy "Cowboy" Johnston is drawing rave reviews from the athletes. In fact, Austrian speed skier Vincent Kriechmayr has said "snow conditions are some of the best I’ve ever seen."
Course Name: Ice River
Course Designer: Swiss legend Bernhard Russi, snow guru Tommy "Cowboy" Johnston
Start Altitude: 1,712m
Finish Altitude: 1,501m
Vertical Drop: 211m
The Favorites
Petra Vlhova - Vlhova has yet to win a medal in nine Olympic starts. She's been dominant on the World Cup this season, winning five of seven slalom starts. At the end of last season she parted ways with her coach Livio Magoni . One of the main reasons Vlhova chose to move on was Magoni's preference for a heavy race schedule. She's structure her entire season to peak for today's event. By all accounts she's the best slalom skier in the world. Today is about handling the pressure and handling nerves.
Mikaela Shiffrin - With the DNF and traumatic injury to her teammate the Games started out just about as poorly as is possible. She took the extraordinary step of publicly apologizing for her performance! Needless to say, there's major pressure. But for once Shiffrin has the benefit of being the chaser and she's proved she can beat Vlhova winning twice on the World Cup this season, including the most recent SL in Schladming.
Who Else Can Podium
Lena Duerr - She has three SL podiums this season, most of anyone besides Vhlova or Shiffrin. She'll have a clean course going bib #1 today.
Katharina Liensberger - Won the SL at World Championships last year in Cortina, but only has two podiums this season.
Wendy Holdener - Two podiums this season. As we know Wendy has nearly 30 SL podiums without a win is today her day?
Darkhorses
Anna Swenn Larson - Maybe the only skier that has the top end speed to match Shiffrin and Vlhova when she's right. But she's only had one podium this season.
Michelle Gisin - One podium this season.
Miscellaneous
Special rule for the Olympics. "Starting order 2nd runs Giant Slalom, Slalom and Alpine Combined - All competitors who complete the 1st run correctly have the right to start in the 2nd run."
Shiffrin is attempting to become only the second woman to win gold in the Olympic slalom twice. (Vreni Schneider did it in '94 & '98)
Shiffrin currently has three Olympic medals (2 gold). Among Americans only Julia Mancuso (4) and Bode Miller (6) have more. With a win today she can become the winningest American alpine skier of all-time (She's currently tied with Andrea Mead Lawrence & Ted Ligety who also have two gold medals).
SL was first contested at the Garmisch games in 1936.
America has won the women's SL gold four times, more than any other nation. (Shiffrin, Barbara Ann Cochran, Gretschen Fraser & Mead-Lawrence).
Vlhova can become the first Slovakian to win a medal in alpine skiing.
The Start List
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