Slovak alpine skier Petra Vlhova won the night slalom event in Flachau, Austria on Tuesday, defending her title as winner of the same event last year. Vlhova, who crossed the finish line with a time of 1 minute 53.65 seconds, beat Sweden's Anna Swenn-Larsson by one tenth of a second, while American 'Snow Queen' Mikaela Shiffrin finished 0.43 seconds behind Vlhova to pick up the bronze medal.
This was Vlhova's second victory in a row in the slalom, as she was also the fastest skier in Zagreb in early January. "Every victory is special for me. The first run went well for me, I created a significant lead for the second, during which I lost a great part of it. It was close, but in the end I won, and the first run definitely played a part in that," stated Vlhova, who was 0.6 seconds ahead of Shiffrin after the first run.
"The pressure is coming from every side. The most difficult moment is when you are waiting. In Flachau, I can see to the finish and I see so many fans. I hear a moderator, I hear people. It's very hard to stay calm, but I did it! And I'm very proud," said Vlhová.
There are four times when a Slovak female skier has celebrated victory in the World Cup Slalom in Flachau. In the first two cases it was another successful Slovak skier, Veronika Velez-Zuzulová. In the other two it was Petra Vlhová, who has earned her 31st podium position in the series and in this has already surpassed the earlier Slovak skier.
The slalom in Flachau took place for the first time ten years ago, and there have been 12 competitions to date. Thanks to Petra Vlhová and Veronica Velez-Zuzulova, a third of the competitions in Flachau have been won by Slovaks, making Slovakia the most successful of all participating countries. Twenty-four-year-old Vlhová first competed in Flachau in 2013.
