Alpine Skiingworld cup 2020/21
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Shiffrin in Copper Mountain, Vlhova in Finland, Swenn-Larsson in Sweden and Holdener in Davos: 9 days after the start they sharpen the edges ...
Thursday 12 November 2020 6 minutes reading time
There is great anticipation for the restart of the World Cup, and it will be the girls who will ensure that the spotlight will turn on again on the white circus in that of Levi, for the anomalous double slalom in Lapland on 21-22 November .
Nine days before the race weekend which now represents the traditional opening of the specialty, with the OK of the FIS in terms of snow control, it is interesting to observe how the four big favorites for the two battles on the "Levi Black", where However, Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone will also show up to look for some points after the one-two in Soelden, they are training in ... the four corners of the world.
We are talking about Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova, Anna Swenn-Larsson and Wendy Holdener, although the third in the world in terms of WCSL, ahead of the Swede and the Swiss, is Katharina Liensberger.
Chapter Shiffrin: the American champion has been training regularly for over ten days at Copper Mountain, where most of the US Ski Team World Cup groups are based. The announced return now seems to have been done and, even if the condition may not be the ideal one, the feeling with Levi (four victories, including the last two editions of the Finnish slalom) is such that Mikaela should be considered the equal favorite by Petra Vlhova.
The Slovakian scares everyone and seems to be the one who, in an absolute sense, arrives best at this appointment, certainly in completely different conditions compared to 12 months ago, when Petra had to live with a shin problem (and came out in the start of the second heat, in the still open duel with Shiffrin); the 3rd place in Soelden, especially for the second run disputed, gives confidence as well as the historian to Levi, where Vlhova triumphed in 2017 by burning the great rival who seemed impregnable by a tenth. Together with Livio Magoni and his staff, he has been working in Suomutunturi since the beginning of November and, with the postponement of the parallel of Lech / Zuers, he will be able to stay in the Finnish town to finish his preparation for Levi in the best possible way.
And then there is Anna Swenn-Larsson, who now seems ready to get that first success in the maximum circuit that the reigning vice world champion deserves, especially after what she did in the past season and in that incredible last slalom of Kranjska Gora, literally thrown to the winds with three doors to go. The 29-year-old Swede is working on her home snow, in Kabdalis, to approach a "double" on a technically perfect track for her characteristics, even though she never managed to get on the podium in Levi. Seventh from a very young age in 2012, but above all 7th, 6th and 4th in the last three editions.
Finally, here is Wendy Holdener, with some unknowns linked to a form conditioned by the 'injury (fracture to the head of the fibula) which occurred in the Swiss' 93 class at the beginning of September. Returning in extremis for the Soelden giant, the following month served to put the pieces of the puzzle back together, with an excellent week of work these days in Davos. And the “Levi Black” is a track that the Swiss really like, three times on the podium and two second places, first in 2016 and then last year, albeit 1 ”78 from Mikaela Shiffrin.
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VLHOVA Petra
SHIFFRIN Mikaela
LIENSBERGER Katharina
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