HAFJELL, Norway (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin vs. Emma Aicher for the most prestigious title in women’s skiing will go to the season-ending final race on Wednesday.
Shiffrin won yet another slalom on Tuesday — her ninth in 10 World Cup starts this season — by a massive margin of 1.32 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener.
That earned Olympic champion Shiffrin 100 points in the race for the World Cup overall title but Aicher’s impressive third place, awarded 60 points, kept the American’s lead in the standings below 100.
Shiffrin will start the season-ending giant slalom on Wednesday 85 ahead of the German who must win to deny the American superstar a women’s record-tying sixth overall title in her stellar career.
“It’s weird to say battle with somebody who I consider a friend," Shiffrin said of Aicher. "These last races have been super exciting for me to be part of it.
“I’m so excited to watch what she does in the future but for now we have one more race to decide this one."
The odds are stacked in Shiffrin's favor.
Aicher has never won a World Cup giant slalom and has a career-best finish of fourth, achieved this month at Are, Sweden.
Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic champion in giant slalom, can seal the overall title herself with a top-15 result on Wednesday that will earn at least 16 points.
Swiss skier Holdener gave an assist on Tuesday by taking second place ahead of Aicher by just 0.04. That kept 20 World Cup points off Aicher’s tally.
Shiffrin’s 110th career race win on Tuesday is already by far the most in the World Cup by any man or woman. Ingmar Stenmark is next best with 86 wins in the 1970s and '80s.
A sixth overall title on Wednesday would match Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll for the women’s World Cup record.
Moser-Pröll won five straight titles from 1971-75 then a sixth in 1979. Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and ’23.
Shiffrin did set a women's World Cup record on Tuesday: Nine wins in a discipline is a single-season best in 60 years on the circuit. She long ago sealed her record ninth career slalom season title.
“This season has been so exciting, quite like a whirlwind," she said. "I’m grateful for it.”
The sun is shining on Shiffrin as the season sets with warm temperatures of 7 degrees Celsius (44 F) and softening snow that barely slowed the greatest slalom skier.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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