Courchevel (France) (AFP) - American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's overall World Cup title for the fourth time in her career on Thursday, bouncing back from a disastrous performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Shiffrin finished second in the Super-G in Courchevel in the French Alps to give her an unassailable 236-point lead over her closest rival, Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, with two races left this season.
Vlhova, the defending champion, finished 17th, outside the top 15 scoring places.
Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway won the race and immediately congratulated Shiffrin with a hug.
At 27, Shiffrin has equalled the record of her retired compatriot Lindsey Vonn by winning the crystal globe trophy for a fourth time.
Only Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell, with six titles in the 1970s, has done better.
Shiffrin set up the win with a rare victory in the downhill 24 hours earlier.
"The whole season has been ups and downs, and the downs have been very, very low for me, some of the toughest moments of my career and of my life," she said.
"Every time I have a tough moment, it brings back the other tough moments and I just get so low, and I just want to go home.I felt it five days ago, I felt it at the Olympics.
"So it's quite special to come here after everything to be able to accomplish and achieve maybe the biggest goal I had for myself this season."
Shiffrin won three straight overall World Cup titles from 2017 to 2019 before the death of her father Jeff in 2020 led to her taking most of that year off.
It is a remarkable return to form for the American, who failed to win a single medal at the Olympics despite being a double gold medallist from previous Games.
Her loss of form in China was all the more inexplicable because she has finished in the top three 14 times this season, and recorded five victories.
Shiffrin said this title had been "the most unlikely", especially as she missed 10 days of the season after testing positive for Covid-19.
"In some ways it felt impossible that this could happen," she said.
She defended her decision to miss some races.
"In the end these decisions worked out and somehow it did, so I am proud of it and thankful and grateful and really happy for my coaches and my whole team."
It has been a double celebration for Shiffrin and her boyfriend, Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who was already assured of winning the overall title for the men's Super-G heading into the two days of racing in Courchevel.
Kilde finished fourth in that event on Thursday.
