(Levi) Slovak Petra Vlhova, Olympic champion in the specialty, won the first slalom of the Alpine Ski World Cup season on Saturday in Levi, Finland.
Leading at the end of the first round, the Slovak also set the best time in the second to crush the race, well ahead of the German Lena Dürr (2e at 1 second and 41 hundredths) and the Austrian Katharina Liensberger (at 1.55).
American star Mikaela Shiffrin, five-time winner of the big crystal globe, who won the two Levi slaloms last season, finished just off the podium (at 1.70).
Canadian Ali Nullmeyer finished in 6the rank (+2.97).
Vlhova, Olympic champion in the specialty, signs her 29e World Cup victory and his sixth in Levi. She confirms her very good form at the start of the season, two weeks after her third place on the opening giant of the World Cup in Sölden (Austria).
We have to go back to 2014 for a skier other than Shiffrin or Vlhova to win in Levi, a city in the far north of Finland located beyond the Arctic Circle, as the two athletes have dominated slalom for almost a decade .
The skiers continue with a new slalom on Sunday.