American ski star Mikaela Shiffrin was assured of winning a fifth overall World Cup title on Saturday with seven races left in the season despite falling short in her latest bid for a record-tying 86th career win.
The 27-year-old finished ahead of her only rival for the crown, Swiss racer Lara Gut-Behrami, in the women’s downhill at Kvitfjell, opening an insurmountable margin on the overall points leaderboard.
Shiffrin has dominated the season, posting 14 podium finishes, including 11 victories, in 25 races.
“It’s pretty wild, actually. The overall, or any season title, is always strange to explain how it feels on the day you win it when you don’t win the race,” Shiffrin said.
“The whole season the work has been amazing and it’s quite special to, before the final races, have that secure.”
Her tally of five overall titles equals Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli. Just two Austrians, Annemarie Moeser-Proll, who won six overall titles, and eight-time winner Marcel Hirscher are ahead of her.
Shiffrin could round the weekend off by equalling Swedish ski icon Ingemar Stenmark’s World Cup mark of 86 victories. She races in the super-G on Sunday before heading to Stenmark’s homeland to compete in the giant slalom and slalom next weekend in Are.
On Saturday, the American finished tied for fifth in her latest crack at Stenmark’s record, extending her pursuit by at least another day.
The race was won by home favorite Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, who became the first Norwegian woman to win a downhill in the 56-year history of World Cup skiing.
Sofia Goggia finished 0.29sec behind in second as the Italian secured the season-long downhill title again.
“I feel great, I mean, it’s my fourth downhill globe, the third in a row, I’m really happy about that,” Goggia said. “But I’m not so happy about the performance of today. I didn’t ski that well, wasn’t smooth as in the training runs.”
Olympic champion Corinne Suter and two-time former world champion Ilka Stuhec placed third and fourth, respectively.
Shiffrin broke a tie on the all-time women’s list with former American teammate Lindsey Vonn in January. Vonn had 82 wins when she retired in 2019.
Shiffrin previously won the overall title three years in a row from 2017-19, and again last year.
Vie called her victory “amazing, it’s indescribable. It’s the best feeling ever,” adding “I just want to have a good time skiing, and yeah, you can’t have it better than when you’re winning races. So yeah, I’m extremely happy.”
The race on the Olympiabakken course, which is an annual track on the men’s circuit but hosted women’s races for the first time in 20 years, took place in sunny conditions, but strong winds affected the race.
Organizers decided to adapt the course and bypass the Russi jump which it deemed potentially too dangerous after skiers jumped there as far as 50m (yards) in training.
Cornelia Huetter, who won Friday’s super-G, lost her balance and slid off the course halfway through her run, but the Austrian avoided injuries.
