Alice Robinson & Manny Feller Win Season Ending Slaloms
Austrian Manuel Feller closed the 2020-21 Audi FIS World Cup season in top form, winning the last race of the season in the slalom at the Season Finals in Lenzerheide.
Feller, who was only in sixth place after the first run, had a nail-biting experience in the leader’s chair as the last five men down the slope. In the end, he staved off two Frenchmen to hang on for the victory, topping Clement Noel by a slim 0.08 seconds and Overall World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault by 0.11 seconds in a very tight race.
With all the globes decided heading into today’s race, the biggest storyline of the day was the duel between the Swiss and Austrian men for the Team Trophy, given to the men’s team with the most World Cup points throughout the entire season. It was a tight race, but in the end, Feller’s victory wasn’t enough to make up the difference as the Swiss earned the men’s trophy in addition to the women’s Team Trophy and Overall Team Trophy.
Also decided in the race was the Longines Rising Star trophy, which went to Italy’s Alex Vinazer thanks to his fourth-place finish today. The women’s giant slalom race winner from today, Alice Robinson won the trophy on the women’s side.
Marco Schwarz of Austria won the slalom crystal globe with Noel in second and Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland in third. Pinturault won the overall globe, having clinched it on Saturday.
Of note today was the final race of long-time veteran Jean-Baptiste Grange, who was greeted on his final run by dozens of well wishers after the long and memorably career.
For the women, 19-year-old Alice Robinson of New Zealand—who burst onto the scene in 2019-20 after winning the opening World Cup in Soelden—had struggled to find the podium in 2020-21 until the Jasna World Cup two weeks ago. And she reminded fans that she has returned to form, throwing down a blazing second run to take the win by .28 seconds ahead of Shiffrin. Meta Hrovat of Slovenia was third.
It was the third career victory for Robinson, who made her debut in the World Cup just two seasons ago at the World Cup Finals in Andorra, finishing in second place as the Junior World Champion invitee. She is the first woman to win three World Cup races before turning 20 since the '80s.
“I wasn’t happy at all with my first run,” said Robinson. “So I just thought I have to go full gas any give it all my energy in the second run, since it was the last of the season I gave every bit of energy and power that I had.”
Shiffrin led after the first run by 0.10 seconds again the tied Marta Bassino and Hrovat. But the American couldn’t overcome Robinson’s strong second run and closed the day 0.28 seconds behind. Hrovat sat 0.48 second behind at the finish.
Surprising only Shiffrin, who wasn’t aware of the standings until a media member reminded her, Shiffrin finished second overall in the giant slalom standings. Marta Bassino of Italy won the giant slalom crystal globe and Tessa Worley of France was third.
Shiffrin was leading after first run by only .10 seconds, and with the bumpy conditions, she lost a little bit of time to falter to second. But she was still thrilled with another podium to finish off the season. “It was a fight,” said Shiffrin. “Some of it I was having a little bit of trouble, but for the most part, I enjoyed my skiing again. It wasn’t quite enough to win, but it was some really good turns in both runs today. I feel like I have a really good direction with my GS skiing and that’s a really good spot to end the season.”
Nina O’Brien took 12th place with a fast second run to conclude a banner season full of personal best results and seven top-20s for the athlete. She was 17th overall in the giant slalom standings and ended up top-15 on the World Cup Start List.
Sunday was Shiffrin’s 10th podium in a row, including World Championships. She also scored 10 podiums out of the 16 World Cups she entered throughout the season and won three of the races. At World Champs, she captured four medals. And she was second in both the slalom and giant slalom standings. Her results were particularly impressive, having gone 300 days between races after her father’s death in early 2020, which was difficult emotionally, and battling a COVID-ridden season, which made finding adequate training hard. “It’s been quite wild—a little bit beyond my hopes or dreams even,” she said. “There were a lot of moments I didn’t think we would do the season at all with the pandemic. I was also uncertain about myself personally. It’s quite incredible to be here now and have a good amount of success. It’s also a really big step to get back to this place to be fighting for the podiums in almost every race.”
While Marta Bassino dropped out of the top-three in the second run, she could still celebrate picking up the discipline globe in the giant slalom. The Italian had the small globe sealed already before today’s race, and today was officially presented with the globe at the ceremony.
Bassino finished the season with 546 points in the discipline. Shiffrin was the runner-up with 420 points, while Tessa Worley closed out the top-three in the discipline.
The overall title was handed to Petra Vlhova of Slovakia. Swiss teammates Lara Gut-Behrami and Michelle Gisin were second and third, respectively. Shiffrin, who had only raced in technical events on the World Cup throughout the season, was fourth.
