Canadian skier Laurence St-Germain beat first-run leader Mikaela Shiffrin to win gold in the ladies’s slalom on the world championships on Saturday in France.
The American finished 0.57 seconds behind St-Germain after the ultimate run to accept silver. Lena Duerr of Germany was 0.69 behind and won bronze.
“I used to be really not expecting this, obviously. It’s unbelievable,” said St-Germain, who hails from Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que.
“I attacked, had a little bit of a mistake, just considering go down, go down, go down, and it worked out, I assume.”
It was the primary gold for Canada in women’s slalom since Anne Heggtveit won on the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, which also counted because the world championships.
It was Canada’s fourth medal — and second gold — at this 12 months’s world championships.
The medal harvest began with James Crawford’s gold within the super-G on Feb. 9, and continued last Sunday with Cameron Alexander’s bronze-medal performance within the downhill.
The Canadian foursome of Valerie Grenier, Jeffrey Read, Britt Richardson and Erik Read. added to the full with a bronze medal within the mixed team parallel event on Tuesday.
St-Germain’s previous best result at a significant championship was sixth within the slalom on the 2019 worlds. Sixth can be her best finish in a World Cup slalom, in Levi in 2020.
“Today was incredible, only a joy to race,” said Shiffrin, whose medal added to the gold she won in the enormous slalom on Thursday, two days after her head coach, Mike Day, split with the skier, and the silver within the super-G last week.
“Especially after the last weeks and all the pieces that happened, I form of thought if I can do a few of my best skiing. Everybody is drained and it’s the tip of a protracted push.
“I used to be so glad with my first run and really glad with plenty of sections on the second run. And here and there I backed it off a bit bit after which it’s not enough for gold.”
The slalom was Shiffrin’s fourth event in 12 days on the worlds. The American didn’t finish her opening event on the worlds last week when she straddled a gate within the slalom portion of the combined, before winning a medal in each of the following three.
“At the tip of two weeks, if I’m a bit bit drained, I cannot move quick enough in slalom,” Shiffrin said.
“I mean, I can move quick enough in slalom, after all, I even have a silver medal, but there may be any person who’s going to have the ability to do it faster. That’s all the time the case.”
Shiffrin, the 2014 Olympic champion, won the world slalom title 4 times between 2013 and 2019 and took the bronze medal two years ago. She became the primary skier, male or female, to win six medals in a single discipline at world championships.
Shiffrin is predicted back at World Cup racing in March.
Saturday’s race was the last women’s event of the worlds. The championships close with the boys’s slalom on Sunday.
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