Mikaela Shiffrin locked up the 2017 slalom discipline title on Saturday with her second win in as many days at Squaw Valley (USA). She was joined on the podium by Czech skier Sarka Strachova in second and Austrian Bernadette Schild in third. 

“(The slalom title) was my first, highest goal so it’s pretty important but I tried not to think about it in the first run today or at all today and now I can think about that a bit more; I’m quite excited," said Shiffrin. "“I made recoveries and came out with the win, and I think Wendy (Holdener) was going for it. I know how it feels to lose it on the last two gates and that absolutely sucks. It’s a huge bummer. I knew there was a chance (to win both races), and I just tried to do my best to make it happen and I’m very happy to be on this side of the weekend.”

Holdener lead Shiffrin by only 0.02 seconds after the first run but skied out on the final gates of the course.

"The hill is quite difficult. It’s steep and you have to push from the start to the finish,” Steachova said. “I felt quite comfortable in the first run, maybe too much, and I lost a little more time. In the second run, the course was a bit broken and it’s not my cup of tea, but I tried to take a risk and when I went through the finish and I saw that I was in the lead, I believed that maybe it could be a podium.”

For Schild, it was her first podium in three years and also the first ladies' slalom podium of the season for Austria.

"I like difficult races so I knew this hill with the steep start and the rollers at the bottom could be something for me. I had quite the mistake in the first run actually but I knew that if I do my thing and ski technically the way I can, I really can make the podium. Wendy was leading after first run and she was really close to finishing but she went out but that’s how it is and I got third," said Schild.

Veronika Velez Zuzulova skied out on the first run which gave the discipline title to Shiffrin prior to the Finals race in Aspen next weekend. 

Source: fis-ski.com