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Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 10th in World Cup slalom on her injury comeback as Ljutic wins

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Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 10th in World Cup slalom on her injury comeback as Ljutic wins
Sport

Sport

Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 10th in World Cup slalom on her injury comeback as Ljutic wins

2025-01-31 05:49 Last Updated At:05:53

COURCHEVEL, France (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin finished 10th in a World Cup slalom race on her injury comeback on Thursday, with Croatian racer Zrinka Ljutic winning in style under floodlights at Courchevel.

The 21-year-old Ljutic has won three of the past four slaloms. She was 1.26 seconds ahead of Sweden's Sara Hector and 1.28 clear of Germany's Lena Duerr.

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United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish are after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish are after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish area after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish area after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic lies in the snow after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic lies in the snow after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during the first run of a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during the first run of a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, center, winner of a a women's World Cup slalom, poses with second placed Sweden's Sara Hector, left, and third placed Germany's Lena Duerr, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, center, winner of a a women's World Cup slalom, poses with second placed Sweden's Sara Hector, left, and third placed Germany's Lena Duerr, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Shiffrin was 2.04 seconds adrift. Chasing a record-extending 100th World Cup win, the 29-year-old American was fifth after the first run on the Stade Emile Allais course but struggled with her timing on both runs.

“I didn’t come into this race expecting that I was going to win,” Shiffrin said. ”I have to be at my top, top level. Now we build from here.”

Shiffrin crashed on Nov. 30 in a giant slalom in Killington, Vermont, and was injured sliding down the mountain. A couple of weeks later, the two-time Olympic gold medalist had abdominal surgery to clean out a puncture wound.

Shiffrin said before this race that she was prioritizing her recovery ahead of chasing the magic 100.

“It was a very important step in my recovery to see how I’m stacking up with the top skiers in the world, and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing,” Shiffrin said. “Also before the world championships it was so important to get this start.”

The worlds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria are next month, where Shiffrin will be eyeing medals in giant slalom and slalom.

“For sure I want to target the GS and slalom and everything really depends on the next 10 days until those races, how it goes with training," she said. “I’m catching up to the fastest in the world so I have a lot of work to do.”

A massive 62 of Shiffrin's 99 World Cup wins have been in slalom. She cupped her hands and then waved to the crowd after finishing her second run.

No other skier, male or female, has won more than 86 World Cup races.

Having overtaken Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, she needed a podium finish to equal Stenmark’s record of 155 World Cup podiums.

She was not quite ready to aim for that.

“It felt challenging and the top women they are are skiing amazing,” Shiffrin said. “I am so happy to be back competing with them, hopefully I get faster in the next weeks.”

Chasing a seventh straight win in slaloms, Shiffrin was the sixth racer to start at shortly after 5 p.m. local time and with the slightly fading light.

Shiffrin was a bit low on her skis but made up some time on the bottom section, finishing .87 seconds behind first-leg leader Ljutic, who crossed the line in 51.88 seconds.

“I want to watch the video from the first run. It was like a little bit of my timing or rhythm (was missing) to catch the track in the right way,” Shiffrin said. “I had some really good turns and some not fast turns.”

A smiling Shiffrin walked over to hug Ljutic as the young Croat sat watching from the leader’s chair. Ljutic had to pinch herself after winning a such a dominant race.

“I’m living the dream now so don’t wake me up," she said.

Shiffrin's been in Ljutic's position so many times before, but her expectations were more realistic after two months out.

Swiss racer Wendy Holdener was second after the first run but she lost balance and missed a gate early in her second run.

Austrian Katharina Liensberger placed fourth ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast, who won the previous slalom in Flachau.

World slalom champion Laurence St-Germain of Canada placed 36th in the first run — around 3 seconds behind Ljutic — and so did not make the second stint.

Rast leads the slalom standings with 450 points ahead of Ljutic on 409 and with Shiffrin in ninth on 226.

Italian Federica Brignone leads the World Cup standings, with Shiffrin down in 17th.

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish are after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish are after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish area after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic celebrates in the finish area after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic lies in the snow after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic lies in the snow after winning a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during the first run of a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during the first run of a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, center, winner of a a women's World Cup slalom, poses with second placed Sweden's Sara Hector, left, and third placed Germany's Lena Duerr, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, center, winner of a a women's World Cup slalom, poses with second placed Sweden's Sara Hector, left, and third placed Germany's Lena Duerr, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin gets to the finish area after completing a women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike, leaving train terminals quiet for Friday's rush hour and an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home.

Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said “Locomotive Engineers on Strike” and “NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.”

Friday’s rail commute into New York from New Jersey is typically the lightest of the week. In New York, some commuters from New Jersey said they could not work remotely and had to come in, taking busses to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan.

David Milosevich, a fashion and advertising casting director, was on his way to a photo shoot in Brooklyn. At 1 a.m. he checked his phone and saw the strike was on.

“I left home very early because of it,” he said, grabbing the bus in Montclair, New Jersey, and arriving in Manhattan at 7 a.m. “I think a lot of people don’t come in on Fridays since COVID. I don’t know what’s going to happen Monday.”

The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement. It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.

“We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the situation as a “pause in the conversations.”

“I certainly expect to pick back up these conversations as soon as possible,” he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “If they’re willing to meet tonight, I’ll meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I’ll do it again. Because I think this is an imminently workable problem. The question is, do they have the willingness to come to a solution.”

Murphy and Kolluri planned a Friday morning news conference.

A few blocks from the Port Authority bus terminal, the NJ Transit train terminal was quiet, with an NJ transit worker in an orange hoody on hand to warn riders it was closed, Signs read: “service suspended.”

The South Amboy train station, an express stop on the NJ Transit rail line, was vacant. But the Waterway ferry that began service only 18 months ago from a waterside launching point that’s a 10-minute walk from the train station was busier than usual for its 6:40 a.m., 55-minute nonstop trip to Manhattan.

The ferry runs once an hour during the morning and evening commutes. With about three dozen people aboard, more than half the seats in the ferry’s lower deck were empty.

Murphy said it was important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”

"Again, we cannot ignore the agency’s fiscal realities,” Murphy said.

The announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.

NJ Transit — the nation’s third-largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.

The agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday.

However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers — only about 20% of current rail customers — so it urged people who could work from home to do so.

Earlier, even the thread of a strike caused travel disruptions. Amid the uncertainty, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the matter, and a mediator was present during Thursday’s talks. Kolluri said Thursday night that the mediation board has suggested a Sunday morning meeting to resume talks.

Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that wants to see its members earn wages comparable to other passenger railroads in the area. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.

NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.

Kolluri and Murphy said Thursday night that the problem isn’t so much whether both sides can agree to a wage increase, but whether they can do so under terms that wouldn’t then trigger other unions to demand similar increases and create a financially unfeasible situation for NJ Transit.

Congress has the power to intervene and block the strike and force the union to accept a deal, but lawmakers have not shown a willingness to do that this time like they did in 2022 to prevent a national freight railroad strike.

The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 450.

Associated Press reporters Cedar Attanasio and Larry Neumeister in New York, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

An information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An empty PATH train platform with an information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An empty PATH train platform with an information screen informing commuters of the rail service suspension, due to the strike by Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, inside Newark Penn Station on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An electronic display advises commuters of NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An electronic display advises commuters of NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An NJ Transit train pulls into the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An NJ Transit train pulls into the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An electronic display advises commuters of potential NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An electronic display advises commuters of potential NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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