ÅRE, Sweden (AP) — Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin won her record-equaling eighth World Cup slalom of the season Sunday but her main rival in the overall standings was second to keep the pressure on the American star.
Shiffrin dominated the last race before the World Cup Finals to beat Emma Aicher of Germany by 0.94 seconds, with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener a second off the pace in third.
“That was really amazing. I was like pretty nervous, pretty excited,
but in the end it was challenging to ski,” Shiffrin said. “I pushed really hard. Quite happy to get to the finish, too.”
Second place marked the career-best result in slalom for Aicher, who in recent weeks has become a threat to Shiffrin’s quest for what would be the American’s record-equaling sixth overall title.
With four events remaining – one race in each discipline – the German all-rounder trails leader Shiffrin by 140 points, with each race win worth 100 points.
Shiffrin had lost five points of her advantage when she finished one spot behind Aicher in fifth in Saturday’s GS, before gaining 20 on her rival following Sunday's win.
Focusing on slalom and GS this season, and two starts in super-G, Shiffrin has amassed 1,286 points in total, including 880 from the slalom discipline. She already locked up her record ninth slalom globe in January, weeks before the Olympics.
Aicher has gathered nine podiums this season across slalom, super-G and downhill, with three wins from the speed events.
Shiffrin also won eight slaloms in the 2018-19 season, a feat previously only achieved by Croatian great Janica Kostelic 25 years ago.
Shiffrin raised her career tally to 72 wins in slalom and 109 overall — both are World Cup records.
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