The women's slalom in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of eleven events, including the final. The slalom season began with the traditional "reindeer" opening races in

Levi, Finland Levi is a fell located in Finnish Lapland, and the largest ski resort in Finland. The resort is located in the village of Sirkka, Kittilä municipality and is served by Kittilä Airport and Kolari railway station. At a latitude of 67.8° north ...

on 11-12 November 2023. Defending champion

Mikaela Shiffrin Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin (born March 13, 1995) is an American FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine skier who has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history (men or women) and is considered one of the greatest alp ...

of the United States repeated as champion, her eighth victory in the discipline, tying the record for most victories in one discipline.

Season summary

The traditional opening slalom races in Levi, which have not been won by someone other than the duo of

of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Petra Vlhová Petra Vlhová (born 13 June 1995) is a Slovak FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer who specialises in the technical events of Slalom skiing, slalom and giant slalom. Vlhová won the World Cup overall title in 2021 a ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

since the race was cancelled in 2015, held true to form when Vlhová won the first one and Shiffrin won the second. For Shiffrin, this was her seventh race victory at the venue. Shiffrin then won the slalom at Killington, her sixth victory there in slalom in seven starts, and established a 70-point lead in the discipline for the season. In the final event before Christmas, though, Vlhová edged Shiffrin at Courchevel, with no one else finishing within two seconds of her, which reduced Shiffrin's lead in the discipline to 50 points. However, Shiffrin won the last slalom of the year (in Lienz) by over 2.3 seconds against the field, with Vlhova fifth, stretching Shiffrin's season lead to 105 points. In the first race of 2024, in the fog and rain of Kranjska Gora, Shiffrin struggled with the conditions and failed to complete her first run. Vlhová took full advantage, winning the race and closing her deficit in the discipline down to 5 points. However, the two races during the week of 15 January decided the season, as Schiffrin won both: first in Flachau, Austria, edging Vlhová in a mid-week night race, and then in Jasná, Slovakia, where Vlhová, skiing less than 20 km from her childhood home, suffered a season-ending ligament tear, leaving Shiffrin with a 125-point lead over Vlhová and a 228-point lead over her closest active competitor,

Lena Dürr Lena Dürr (born 4 August 1991) is a German World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in slalom. Career Dürr made her World Cup debut in February 2008. She has two World Cup wins; the first was also her first podium, a parallel slalom ...

of Germany (who finished seventh), with only three races remaining in the discipline for the season. However, while recovering from ligament sprains, Shiffrin missed the next race in Andorra, which was then won by Sweden's

Anna Swenn-Larsson Anna Swenn-Larsson (born 18 June 1991) is a Swedish World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in slalom. She made her World Cup debut in a slalom at Courchevel in December 2010 and placed 26th; her first podium came on home snow at Åre in Mar ...

for her second career victory. But Shiffrin returned for the last race before finals in Åre and posted the fastest time on each run to win by well over a second and clinch the season championship in the discipline.

Finals

The World Cup finals in the discipline took place on Saturday, 16 March 2024 in

Saalbach-Hinterglemm Saalbach-Hinterglemm is a municipality in the district of Zell am See (district), Zell am See (Pinzgau region), in the Austrian States of Austria, state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg. It is well known for its skiing and other winter sports. A four ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup slalom discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline, plus any skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, were eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 earned World Cup points. In this race, the winner of the women's slalom Junior World Championship ( Dženifera Ģērmane) was already eligible as one of the top 25 skiers in the discipline for the season, and no skier with at least 500 points who wasn't otherwise eligible chose to compete. Due to injuries to Vhlová and

Wendy Holdener Wendy Holdener (born 12 May 1993) is a Swiss FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer who specialises in Slalom skiing, slalom and Alpine skiing combined, combined. She is a two-time World champion in combined and a fiv ...

, only 23 skiers competed. Although Shiffrin had already clinched the discipline championship, she also won the final for her 97th total World Cup victory (and 60th victory in slalom) in her final race of the season. By placing 15th in the final (the final scoring position, worth 16 points), Dürr finally edged past the injured Vhlová (by 3 points) for second in the discipline for the season.

Standings

Legend

* * * *DNQ = Did not qualify for run 2 *DNF1 = Did not finish run 1 *DSQ1 = Disqualified run 1 *DNF2 = Did not finish run 2 *DSQ2 = Disqualified run 2 *DNS2 = Did not start run 2 * * * *

References

External links