schladming ready for a dream slalom, where Shiffrin won his first iris ...

Next Tuesday the first "night race" on the Planai for women, but there are the precedents of the 2012 cup finals and, above all, the 2013 world race when, at just 17 years old, Mikaela made history.

Thursday 6 January 2022 4 minutes reading time

The cancellation of the women's slalom scheduled for Tuesday 11 January in Flachau has created yet another problem in a very difficult season to manage for a thousand reasons, but not all evils come to harm and, if everyone is already watering their mouths thinking about two technical races next weekend in Kranjska Gora, which replaced Maribor again due to lack of snow and will offer a very high level context, we will have fun at the beginning of next week too. It's true, the night classic on the “Hermann Maier Weltcup Strecke” is well received by athletes and professionals, but on a technical level we are certainly not talking about an elite track. What happened with the decision to prevent the dispute of the race in a location strongly affected by the Covid factor, today led the Austrian federation and the FIS to find an exceptional solution, that of a slalom for girls in the most beautiful stadium for the discipline at the male level, or the Planai of Schladming which since 1997 has hosted the legendary "night race". For the first time, since we will compete under the spotlight (6.00 pm 1st heat, 2nd heat at 8.45 pm), even the pink circus will have this scenario available, albeit without (as already happened for men 12 months ago ) of the public on special occasions. However, there are a couple of precedents in the last decade, but in slalom held during the day. Like at the World Cup finals in March 2012, when Michaela Kirchgasser prevailed in front of Veronika Zuzulova and Marlies Schild, and a very young Mikaela Shiffrin (17 years old from ... 4 days) 15th. Less than a year later (February 2013), that little phenomenon was able to go on to clinch the first of his four consecutive world titles in tight stakes. The American was able to beat, by just over 2 tenths, Kirchgasser and Hansdotter, in a race that already saw discreet athletes now in vogue, such as Holdener (11th), Mielzynski (17th), Noens (19th), Duerr ( 21st), Swenn-Larsson (23rd) and Michelle Gisin, 26th that day. Almost 9 years later they will find a similar Planai in the slope, since the track has not undergone significant changes, but the memories will be a bit 'faded and the context of the night will change everything ... or almost.

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