Mikaela Shiffrin has won back-to-back slaloms in Levi this weekend ©Getty Images

Mikaela Shiffrin held off a strong challenge from Swiss great Wendy Holdener on the second run to secure back-to-back slalom victories in Levi this weekend, beginning the 2022-2023 International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup season perfectly.

On the first run, Shiffrin set the best time in 56.86 seconds, with Holdener finishing fourth on 57.07.

Germany's Laura Duerr was the quickest of the main contenders going through the final gates to finish the first run just 0.07 seconds behind the leader, followed by Olympic champion, Slovakian Petra Vlhová, who was a tenth of a second behind her great slalom foe.

Sweden's Sara Hector, who won a memorable giant slalom title at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, had a solid first attempt in sixth behind Norwegian Thea Louise Stjernesund.

Anna Swenn Larsson from Sweden, who was second yesterday to the American, was looking like a serious threat to Shiffrin during her run after going green through the second split, but missed a gate and skied out.

Later, Britain's Charlie Guest was 0.01 seconds in front of Shiffrin through the penultimate time gate, but lost her balance - frustratingly eluding her from her best-ever World Cup result.

Guest's best to date came in Schladming in January when she finished 13th after two runs.

Wendy Holdener laid down a fantastic second run to take silver in Levi ©Getty Images
Wendy Holdener laid down a fantastic second run to take silver in Levi ©Getty Images

Croatians Leona Popovic and world junior slalom champion Zrinka Ljutić were solid in their second runs to finish sixth and seventh overall, with Hector stringing together another consistent effort to ensure fifth overall.

Stjernesund had a messy second run, taking her out of contention and into tenth overall.

Holdener was the first of the final four to go and managed to take more than a second out of then-leader Hector with a fantastic time of 55.42, totalling 1min 52.49sec.

Vlhová was next and despite being clear ahead of the Swede too, could not replicate the Swiss' second run, finishing fourth tenths of a second behind with a total of 1:52.89.

Duerr still had the sixth quickest second run, but had to nestle between Vlhová and Hector in 1:53.18.

However, Shiffrin delivered under pressure, marginally bettering the second run of Holdener to win by 0.28sec in 1:52.21.

Killington is the next women's leg on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup circuit, with a double header of giant slalom and slalom scheduled for November 26 and 27.