2018 Winter Olympics – Women’s Giant Slalom Winner odds and predictions

US star Shiffrin ready to deliver gold after delay

Olympics

Alpine Skiing – women’s giant slalom – February 15th, 2018

The action is set for around 00:30 am on the 15th, and the event will be contested across two sessions so there is plenty to look forward too. This event was postponed on day three because of some terribly high winds so it has been moved back a bit and it has just amped up the anticipation about Mikaela Shiffrin going out and getting the gold medal. She is one of the absolute stars of the US team and she is out defending her title after becoming the youngest ever Olympic champion in the event with her gold medal at Sochi four years ago.

There is a Brisith interest in the event if you wanted to tune in as Alex Tilley is up for Team GB. The Scot is making her first appearance at the Olympics, taking part in both the slalom and the giant slalom. She isn’t expected to get anywhere near the medals at all as she has never come close to winning anything of note. At last year’s World Championships, Tilley was 30th in the giant slalom.

This is going to be all about the dominance of Shiffrin who is the outright favouirte at Unibet to win this. The 22-year-old is the current Olympic and World cup champion as well as holding the World title in the slalom. This season she has been in phenomenal form, at one point winning five World Cup events on the trot and becoming the first ever female skier to win five World Cup races in a single calendar year.

She did go off the boil a little bit for the rest of January 2018 though with three non-finishers. So if by some miracle Shiffrin isn’t on her game, and who knows how the delay may have thrown her off, then who is likely to come through and cause her to sweat? You would have to b looking towards Tessa Worley of France and 2010 Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany to be the ones pushing the hardest to get to the top of the podium in the women’s giant slalom.

Worley and Rebensburg

Germany’s Rebensburg was the 2010 Olympic gold medalist in the giant slalom which to a degree came from nowhere as that was her first ever international victory. She went back four years ago to Sochi and landed the bronze so she does make a decent option to get into the top three and she has been on point in the 2018 World Cup races so far, winning back to back events in the Austria and the USA, before getting another win in Italy towards the end of January. She has also landed two-second places in other World Cup events this season.

As for Worley, the French skier as has also been in decent form this season in the World Cup races, taking three-second places and a win in Switzerland right at the end of January in the giant slalom. She missed out on Sochi four years ago because of injury and on her Olympic debut in 2010 at the age of 20, she finished 16th in the giant slalom. She will be a threat, perhaps not as consistent as Rebensburg has been this season, but again a decent option at Unibet to get up on the podium this week. Worley did win the world title in St Moritz last year. The last skier thought to have followed up a world title with an Olympic win was Deborah Compagnoni back in 1998.

Predictions

Shiffrin is another one of the big US celebrity stars at PyeongChang and she is going to take some stopping. She is big value to get herself the gold medal and could become only the sixth woman to win an Olympic medal in the slalom and the giant slalom. She’s that good, but expect a huge threat to come in from Rebensburg. The German hasn’t been hyped as much for the event, however, with Shiffrin just going off the boil towards the end of January while Rebensburg was coming good. This could be tight. A Shiffrin-Rebensburg 1-2 looks a solid option for an outcome.