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US' Mikaela Shiffrin in action during heat one of the women's Alpine Skiing competition at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. Michael Kappeler/dpa
American great Mikaela Shiffrin took a first step towards banishing her Olympic ghosts when she held a huge first run lead in the slalom at the Milan/Cortina Games on Wednesday.
Shiffrin was a massive .82 of a second ahead of German Lena Dürr, with Sweden's Cornelia Öhlund a surprise third one second back.
Swiss Camille Rast, the only skier to beat Shiffrin in a World Cup slalom this season, was fourth with a deficit of 1.05 seconds after all top skiers from a field of 95 had competed.
Shiffrin was the only top skier who took a different route in a key section where athletes had a rare two options through the gates.
The 2022 gold medallist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia trailed by close to three seconds in her first real slalom since suffering severe knee injuries two years ago.
Shiffrin has an unrivalled 108 World Cup victories of which 71 have come in the slalom. She won seven of the eight World Cup races in the discipline this season and was second behind Rast in the other.
But, after getting slalom gold in 2014 plus giant slalom gold and alpine combined silver in 2018 Shiffrin has had no luck at the Olympics.
She missed the podium in all her six 2022 events, skiing out in the slalom, giant slalom and slalom of the alpine combined. At these Games she was fourth in team combined with Breezy Johnson after her poor slalom run and 11th in the giant slalom.
But she now has the chance to come good in the second run set for 1230 GMT. Shiffrin has finished her last 19 slalom races, winning 15 of them. She last went out in January 2024.
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US' Mikaela Shiffrin in action during the Alpine Skiing Women's Slalom heat one competition of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. Michael Kappeler/dpa
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