Former SRD racer Mikaela Shiffin makes World Cup Podium!

A podium for Mikaela!

Charging to her second straight slalom podium, Tina Maze came in second, 0.79 seconds back, but the big story of the day is that of 16-year-old American Mikaela Shiffrin, who, after just starting to race on the World Cup this season, landed her first career podium in third, 1.30 seconds off the winning time and posting the fastest second run time (56.56).

“It’s a very good way to end the year,” said Schild of her final victory of 2011. “It’s nice to win at home. It’s amazing it always works out so well.” As is her way, Schild marked her territory early, leading Maze by 0.54 seconds going into the second run with a handful of others trailing by under a second. The Swiss course setting in the second run proved tricky for several racers, but not for Slovakia’s Veronika Zuzulova, who started 11th and posted the second fastest second-run time after Shiffrin, and spent a considerable amount of time standing in the leader’s box, finishing eighth.

In spite of being the 40th athlete to start on Thursday, Shiffrin, who posted an astonishing eighth-place result in the Aspen slalom, finished 12th in the first run. After her lightning fast second run, the teenager stood in the leader’s box for several minutes taking deep breaths and scarcely believing her success until she was mobbed by her teammates when it became clear that she had made the podium.

“I’ve been working for this almost my whole life,” said Shiffrin, who hails, like teammate Sarah Schleper who retired from the World Cup on Thursday (stay tuned for that story), from Vail, Colorado. “I’ve been watching all these girls – Marlies Schild, Kathrin Zettel, Lindsey Vonn, Nicole Hosp … I’ve been watching the top girls for the past 10 years, cheering them on, learning from their success. Now I’m here … and it feels really crazy.”

----- We are very proud of you Mikaela! Keep it up!