The final women’s discipline of Alpine Skiing is the Slalom and it will take place on February 21 and has a start time of 7:45 am (ET). The event will be televised live at www.nbcolympics.com or you can check your local listings to find out when you can catch the action on television. Odds for the top 10 in the event are listed below, with a slightly detailed look at the top 5 in the field.
Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) is the favorite in this event at 6/5 odds. Mikaela had a very solid Olympic debut as she finished 5th in the Giant Slalom and was just 0.23 seconds from grabbing a bronze medal in the event. Not bad for the 18 year old in her first Olympic event. The Giant Slalom is not even her best event, but the Slalom is as she finished 2013 ranked 1st in the World Cup standings in this discipline. In slightly over 2 years f racing she has 7 wins and all are in the Slalom, including winning her last 2 races in January prior to coming to Sochi. She is on a roll and just may have what it takes to walk away with the Gold in this event.
Marlies Schild (Austria) is next at 11/4 odds. This is by far the best event for Marlies as 35 of her career 37 wins have come in the Slalom. Marlies is actually a role model of Mikaela’s so this is shaping up to be quite a battle. Marlies finished 2013 ranked 26th in the World Cup standing for the Slalom, but prior to that she had finished 3rd or better in 8 of her last 9 years, with the only year she didn’t was in 2009 when she missed the year due to injury. She has two Slalom win in 2014, so she also comeisn in on a bit of a roll.
Frida Hansdotter (Sweden) is next at 6/1 odds. Frida didn’t have a great showing the Giant Slalom, finishing 14th, but this is here better event. Friday finished 2013 ranked 4th in the Slalom World Cup standings. She has 9 World Cup podiums in this even with 8 of those being 2nd place and 1 being a win, which just happened to be in her last race prior to coming to Sochi. Another skier coming in with a bit of momentum in this event.
Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germany) is next at 7/1 odds. Maria has 2 medals in these games so far, taking the Gold in the Super Combined and the Silver in the Super G. Maria sat out the Giant Slalom with a cold, but is expected to race in this one. She comes into this event as the reigning Olympic champion, taking the Gold in the Slalom in the 2010 games at Vancouver. Maria took the 2009 and 2010 World cup season titles in the slalom and finished 3rd in 2011, but has dipped a bit the last two years, finishing 9th last year and 7th in 2012. Still she is always a threat when she hits the slopes and would love to successfully defend here Olympic title.
Tina Maze (Slovenia) checks in at 7/1 odds. What an Olympics it has been for Tina thus far as she won Gold medals in the Downhill and Giant Slalom, while finishing 4th in the Super Combined and 5th in the Super G. She has clearly been the most consistent skier at Sochi thus far. Tina finished 2013 ranked 2nd in the world cup standing s for the slalom and she finished 3rd in 2012, but of her 23 career win, just 3 have come the way of the slalom. Still the way she is skiing right now it would not be surprising at all to see here atop the podium when all is said and done.
Next Five Odds... Maria Pietilae-Holmner- Sweden (10/1)... Bernadette Schild- Austria (18/1)... Kathrin Zettel- Austria (28/1)... Marie-Michele Gagnon- Canada (38/1)... Michaela Kirchgasser- Austria (33/1)
Prediction: Gonna go with Mikaela Shiffrin from the USA to take the gold in this one. It is her time and should would love to beat out some one she has looked up to for years. For the Silver I will look to the very consistent Tina Maze, while Marlies Schild should grab the bronze.
Many thanks to Wikipedia and Bleacher Report for providing the info needed for this article.
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