KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Croatian skier Zrinka Ljutic secured her second consecutive World Cup victory in women’s slalom, propelling her to the top of the standings on Sunday. The 20-year-old Ljutic had previously clinched her maiden title in Semmering, Austria, last week before triumphing once again in Kranjska Gora. Ljutic matched Wendy Holdener as the fastest skier in their initial run and then outpaced the Swiss athlete by 0.16 seconds in the second run.
Reflecting on her performance, Ljutic remarked, “I didn’t know how Wendy, how well she skied. I just had my own sort of idea and I was really focusing on myself. I kind of decided the tempo of the course of the run, how I want to ski. And I really tried to stick to that vision and I made it, it was enough. So that’s even better.” Anna Swenn-Larsson of Sweden secured the third spot, finishing 1.19 seconds behind Ljutic.
With the absence of the injured star Mikaela Shiffrin from the race, Ljutic surged to the forefront in the discipline standings with 309 points, edging past the former leader Camille Rast by four points. Despite Rast finishing in fourth place, 1.36 seconds behind, she managed to maintain her streak of not placing outside the top five positions in slalom this season. Rast had claimed victory in her debut World Cup race in Killington on December 1.
In the overall standings, Ljutic led with 456 points, holding a nine-point advantage over Sweden’s Sara Hector, who finished in sixth place after triumphing in the giant slalom the previous day. Ljutic, who is set to celebrate her 21st birthday later this month, credited her recent success to the momentum gained from her victory the previous week. She expressed, “Especially now after this nice result in Semmingen, I really had a big appetite, I obviously wanted to repeat that and I felt in some sense powerful and dominant. But again, I knew that I cannot now focus on just like the time and the win, I have to do my things before that in order to make possible that it happens. And it happened. So I’m just grateful.”
Defending champion Shiffrin, who had emerged victorious in the first two races of the season in the discipline, was recuperating from abdominal surgery necessitated by a deep wound sustained in a giant slalom crash on November 30 in Killington. In Shiffrin’s absence, Katie Hensien emerged as the highest-placed American skier, securing the 12th position.
