BRATISLAVA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Slovakian alpine skier Petra Vlhova celebrated her third consecutive victory in an International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup competition.
After winning the slaloms in Zagreb and Flachau in the previous January, Vlhova managed to upset her main rival Mikaela Shiffrin of USA for the third time straight.
But the Slovakian was not the only one on the top of the podium on Saturday.
The Italian giant slalom specialist Federica Brignone finished her runs with an identical 2:21.15 and tied Vlhova for first place. Shiffrin almost made it a spectacular three-way tie, finishing behind the co-winners with the smallest of margins, only 0.01 seconds.
"It's wonderful to be on top of the podium with Federica. This is my first giant-slalom victory and podium of the season, so I'm very, very happy," said the 24-year-old Vlhova after triumphing in the fourth WC giant slalom of her career.
She is also the reigning world champion in this most technical discipline of alpine skiing.
Shiffrin, who won a record 17 World Cup races last season, seems to have lost her ever-present confidence in the new year but she's happy that people have finally stopped asking her if she was unbeatable.
In the previous season, the giant slalom event in Maribor, Slovenia, produced also a tie, with Shiffrin and Vlhova sharing the first place in February.
History's previous three-way-tie took place in 2006 when Lindsey Vonn, Michaela Dorfmeister, and Nadia Styger finished with identical times in the super-G event in Hafjell, Norway, fourth-placed Kelly VanderBeek trailed by 0.01 seconds.
With two victories and one second-place in the giant slalom discipline of the current WC season, the Italian skier Brignone leads the standings ahead of Shiffrin and Marta Bassino, also from Italy. Vlhova is fourth with four more GS events in the 2020 schedule.
Vlhova cut her deficit to the overall WC standings leader Shiffrin to 233 points, Brignone trails by another 48.
Following are the giant slalom top three standings:
1. Federica Brignone (Italy) 375 points
2. Mikaela Shiffrin (United States) 314 points
3. Marta Bassino (Italy) 264 points
Following are the top three in the WC overall standings:
1. Mikaela Shiffrin (United States) 946 points
2. Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) 713 points
3. Federica Brignone (Italy) 665 points
