Women’s World Cup Comes to Quiet Halt

A ski season for the Women’s World Cup that expected to go out with a bang, went silently with a whimper as officials canceled the remaining races due to the coronavirus pandemic.

First the World Cup Finals, schedule fro March 16-22 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, were canceled due to the outbreak of the virus there. All of Italy is currently in lock-down. Then, the Federation International du Ski, FIS, has announced that the last event on the schedule, the Audi FIS Women’s World Cup races in Are, Sweden due to take place March 12, has also been canceled.

According to reporting by Ski Racing, three members of a sponsor support team at the event have shown symptoms of the virus and have been quarantined.

Mikaela Shiffrin had announced on March 5 that she was flying to Scandinavia and would have considered competing. She has been off the World Cup circuit since the tragic death of her father, Jeff, on February 2.

The cancellation — and her absence from other races — leaves Shiffrin out of contention for the overall World Cup globe, which goes to Italy’s Federica Brigone, who was 153 points ahead of Shiffrin in the standings. Shiffrin finished second and Slovakia’s Petra Vhlova, third.

For the season, Shiffrin will finish second in slalom (Brignone won by 20 points), third in giant slalom and fifth in downhill.

Top photo: Slovakia’s Petra Vhlova, who won the overall 2020 World Cup slalom globe,  congratulates Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the slalom at the Killington World Cup last November. Photo by Brooks Curran.