By ERIC WILLEMSEN
LIENZ, Austria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin wrapped up an eventful return from her 11-day break from World Cup racing on Saturday, dominating a giant slalom for her 63rd career victory.
After nearly arriving too late for the opening run, Shiffrin posted the fastest time in both legs to win by a big margin of 1.36 seconds.
Marta Bassino of Italy, who won the GS in Killington last month, finished second, while Austria’s Katharina Liensberger finished 1.82 back in third.
The victory moved Shiffrin into outright second place on the women’s winners list. Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell won 62 times in the 1970s and ’80s.
Lindsey Vonn holds the women’s record of 82 wins.
Having misread the local start time of 10:15 a.m., Shiffrin was preparing for a 10:30 start.
The American three-time overall champion had to interrupt her usual warmup routines to make it to the start gate in time but made no mistake once on the course and carved out a commanding lead over Italian rivals Bassino and Federica Brignone by 0.61 and 0.74 seconds, respectively.
Shiffrin built on that lead and extended her advantage in a flawless second run.
Shiffrin opted out of the Val d’Isere races last weekend after finishing a disappointing 17th in a mid-week GS in another French resort, Courchevel.
The events in Val d’Isere were then canceled because of bad weather.
Shiffrin trained a few days in Courchevel, took three days off, and had a four-day training camp in Italy to get ready for the final races of the calendar year.
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