KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Swiss skier Camille Rast ended Mikaela Shiffrin’s six-race winning streak in World Cup slaloms Sunday, beating the American star at a race in Slovenia as their duel shapes up nicely for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Rast led Shiffrin by one-tenth of a second after the opening run and extended her advantage to 0.14 in the final run for her fourth career win.
Rast also led Shiffrin last week in Austria after the first
leg but the American made up more than half a second on a deteriorating course to narrowly take the win.
Sunday's victory came one day after Rast earned her maiden giant slalom win on the same hill and dedicated that victory to the victims of the fire at a bar in Crans-Montana near her hometown of Vétroz.
"I gave everything I had this weekend. Double on the same weekend is quite amazing. I’m so happy,” Rast said, adding that “a lot of energy” was key to her triumph.
“It was a little bit a battle, but I had a lot of fun. And the slope, wow, was amazing, The preparation was top.”
The duo was far ahead of the rest of the field, as Rast’s teammate Wendy Holdener trailed by a massive 1.83 seconds in third.
Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan in fourth was the only other racer finishing less than two seconds off the pace.
Shiffrin won the final race of last season before taking the first five slaloms in the current campaign and raise her career tally to 69 wins in slalom and 106 overall, both are World Cup records.
Her personal best is seven straight slalom wins; the World Cup record is eight, achieved by Vreni Schneider twice in the 1980s and by Janica Kostelic in 2001.
The next slalom is a night race on Jan. 13 in Flachau, where Rast triumphed last year and Shiffrin won five times in the past.
A downhill and a super-G are scheduled next weekend in another Austrian resort, Zauchensee.
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