Mikaela Shiffrin won skiing’s overall World Cup title for the fourth time on Thursday, fueled by speed races that turned her expected duel with Petra Vlhová into a runaway success.
Shiffrin finished second in the super-G at the World Cup Finals — one day after a surprise victory in downhill — to put more pressure on Vlhová for the overall title.
The Slovakian skier had to finish no worse than seventh to stop Shiffrin from extending her lead in the standings beyond 200 points with only their specialty slalom and giant slalom races left over the weekend.
The defending champion finished 17th, outside the top 15 scoring places, to trail Shiffrin by 236 points.
Shiffrin earned her fourth giant crystal globe trophy after winning three straight overall titles from 2017-19, and one month after struggling at the Beijing Olympics.
American skier Lindsey Vonn also won four overall titles in her career, trailing behind only Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s six titles in the 1970s.
In the super-G, Shiffrin finished 0.05 seconds behind winner Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway. Michelle Gisin of Switzerland was third, 0.13 behind.
