Henrik Kristoffersen claimed today his third World Cup victory of the season in the first Slalom to be held in Garmisch. It was Kristoffersen's 20th World Cup victory in Slalom, -his last one was in Chamonix on January 2021-, and his 24th overall.
Only Ingemar Stenmark (40), Alberto Tomba (35) and Marcel Hirscher (32) have won more Slalom races than Kristoffersen.
Kristoffersen made two solid runs today and despite worsening course conditions in the second one, he was able to finish at the top of the podium.
Until today, the only Norwegian man to finish on a World Cup slalom podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was Kjetil André Aamodt, who finished in second place back in 1993.
"We changed a lot in December (Kristoffersen started working with a new ski technician), which is quite late in the season, but it’s working so well now and we just have to focus on the skiing and everything is possible. It’s not that we’re going to win every race, but if we do the right technical things, we are in the race", said Kristoffersen.
Loic Meillard finished in second place, +0,14 seconds behind the Norwegian. The 25-year-old skier from Neuchâtel performs two solid runs and finally was rewarded himself for his constant performance with a place among the top 3. It's his 8th World Cup podium, his second one in Slalom.
Manuel Feller, who finished in 5th place the first run, rounded out the podium, +0,51 seconds behind Kristoffersen. It's the sixth time he is on the podium this season, three times in Slalom and three times in the Giant Slalom. It's his 13th career podium in the World Cup.
Spanish skier Joaquim Salarich, with bib number 50, finished +1.11 behind for a career-best eighth position. This season he had earned World Cup points in two previous races in Val d'Isere (15th) and Madonna di Campiglio (15th).
This season there have been seven different winners in seven races (Clément Noël, Sebastian Foss-Solevåg, Johannes Strolz, Lucas Braathen, Dave Ryding, Linus Strasser, and Henrik Kristoffersen), and the 21 podium places have been divided by 15 different athletes (only multiple podiums by Kristoffer Jakobsen, Lucas Braathen, Manuel Feller, Linus Strasser, and Henrik Kristoffersen).
After failing to finish today's race Lucas Braathen is still on the lead of the Slalom standings but is now just one point ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen, who moved up to second place. Loic Meillard is ten points behind the leader in the third position.
Manuel Feller is fourth, only twelve points behind Braathen.
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