While America’s top alpine racer, Mikaela Shiffrin, raced to a pair of second-place finishes at last weekend’s World Cup slalom event in Levi, Finland, things wouldn’t go as well for a trio of Tahoe skiers.
Shiffrin battle through back issues, returns to World Cup action this weekend in Levi realvail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from realvail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Tahoe s Lila Lapanja skis to a giant slalom national championship in Aspen, Colorado, on April 15.
Courtesy of U.S. Ski & Snowboard
Incline Village’s Lila Lapanja stands in the dark Finish Lapland, eyeing the traces of fog that dance among the lights and slalom gates below her.
It’s November at Finland’s largest ski resort, Levi, and Lapanja, 26, is seeking her first World Cup points since 2016.
During these past few years, she’s dealt with various nagging injuries, losing her place on the national team, and fighting to continue her career as an independent racer. Now on a dark night in Finland, Lapanja has a chance to prove to herself and everyone else that she still belongs among the world’s top alpine skiers.
The Colorado Sun
Alpine skier Lila Lapanja takes the first place podium as second and third place skiers Storm Klomhaus, center, and Tricia Mangan congratulate each other on the win from Women’s Giant Slalom National Championships at the base of Aspen Highlands on Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
When just about every other resort in the world nixed contests for the 2020-21 winter, Aspen Snowmass hosted its busiest competition season ever.
“It was monumental,” said Eric Webster, the director of events for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, or USSA.
Going into the 2020-21 season, USSA had no events on the calendar in Aspen. By the end of this month, the association will have hosted 1,000 athletes from 37 countries plus another 1,000 coaches, officials, event staff and television production workers at four major events.