Henrik Kristoffersen gana el primer eslalon de Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Henrik Kristoffersen claimed his third World Cup victory of the season today by winning the first slalom held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

It was Kristoffersen’s 20th World Cup slalom victory — his previous win came in Chamonix in January 2021 — and the 24th World Cup victory of his career.

Only Ingemar Stenmark (40), Alberto Tomba (35) and Marcel Hirscher (32) have won more World Cup slalom races than Kristoffersen.

The Norwegian delivered two solid runs and, despite worsening course conditions in the second, managed to finish at the top of the podium.

Before today, the only Norwegian to have reached the podium in a World Cup slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was Kjetil André Aamodt, who finished second in 1993.

“We changed a lot of things in December — Kristoffersen began working with a new ski technician — quite late in the season, but now it is working very well and we just have to concentrate on skiing. Anything is possible. It doesn’t mean we are going to win every race, but if we do things properly from a technical point of view, we are in contention,” Kristoffersen said.

Loïc Meillard finished second, 0.14 seconds behind the Norwegian. The 25-year-old skier from Neuchâtel completed two solid runs and was rewarded for his consistency with a place in the top three. It was his eighth World Cup podium and his second in slalom.

Manuel Feller, fifth after the first run, completed the podium 0.51 seconds behind Kristoffersen. It was Feller’s sixth podium of the season: three in slalom and three in giant slalom. He has now achieved 13 World Cup podium finishes.

Spain’s Joaquim Salarich, wearing bib number 50, finished 1.11 seconds behind the winner and achieved the best result of his career with eighth place. He had already scored World Cup points in two races this season, finishing 15th in Val d’Isère and 15th in Madonna di Campiglio.

There have been seven different winners in the season’s seven slalom races — Clément Noël, Sebastian Foss-Solevåg, Johannes Strolz, Lucas Braathen, Dave Ryding, Linus Strasser and Henrik Kristoffersen — while the 21 podium places have been shared among 15 skiers.

Despite failing to finish today’s race, Lucas Braathen remains the leader of the slalom standings, but now holds only a one-point advantage over Henrik Kristoffersen, who moves into second place. Loïc Meillard is third, ten points behind the leader, while Manuel Feller occupies fourth position, only 12 points behind Braathen.