Sawt Falasteen - Shiffrin on track for world medal milestone as Rast leads slalom

Should Shiffrin win a slalom medal of any colour, she will surpass Christl Cranz, who competed for Germany in the 1930s.

The 29-year-old American currently has 15 world championship medals (eight golds, four silvers and three bronzes) including four gold in the slalom, and the latest coming in Saalbach when she won the team combined alongside newly-crowned downhill champion Breezy Johnson.

Shiffrin has admitted that her presence in the Austrian resort for the World Ski Championships had been up for debate as she slowly makes her comeback from a crash that sidelined her for two months.

The dramatic fall in Killington in November left her nursing an abdominal puncture wound that required surgery.

After finishing 10th in the Courchevel night slalom in her first race back last month, Shiffrin decided to not defend her world giant slalom title in Saalbach, citing symptoms like post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by her fall and injury.

But her performance in the slalom section of the combined and the first leg of the individual race confirmed her form over the shortest technical discipline.

Shiffrin, who has won 62 World Cup slalom races among her record overall tally of 99, finished third in the first leg in bitterly cold but sunny conditions with temperatures of -8C (17.6F).

She was 0.72sec off the lead pace of 58.91 seconds set by Switzerland's Camille Rast, who heads the World Cup slalom standings after winning twice and finishing inside the top five in the other five races this season.

"It's simple, there's nothing, full throttle," had been the Swiss team's radio encouragement to its racers.

Rast is bidding to become the first Swiss winner of the women's slalom since Vreni Schneider in 1991 - the last time the world championships were held in Saalbach.

"The snow was really changing from top to bottom," said Rast.

"I knew I had to adapt - I just skied, it was fun!"

Austria's 2021 world champion Katharina Liensberger was second fastest down the Ulli Maier, 0.58sec off Rast's pace.

A second Swiss in the shape of Wendy Holdener, who has eight world championship medals but just one of them has come in her favoured slalom -- when she won silver in 2017, was still in touch in fourth (+0.80).

There was then a big margin to fifth place, occupied by American Paula Moltzan, at 1.55sec, and with it all to do in the second leg scheduled for 1215 GMT.

Laurence St-Germain became Canada's first women's slalom world champion for 63 years when she won a shock gold in the last world champs in Courchevel/Meribel in 2023.

But the 30-year-old, who is still yet to claim a World Cup podium, was one of a large number of skiers who failed to finish the first leg.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST