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Mikaela Shiffrin doesn't just win every slalom of the Olympic season. She dominates every race and wins by a large margin.
The American skiing standout claimed a record 105th World Cup victory after several of her top contenders retired during the first run of Tuesday's night race in Courcheval, France.
Shiffrin extended her lead in the first run and finished in one minute 42.50 seconds, 1.55 seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 seconds ahead of German racer Emma Eicher.
Shiffrin has now won the first four slaloms of the season and five in a row, including last season's final race.
Rast and Eicher moved up to third and fourth place overall, respectively. Shiffrin leads the overall standings with 558 points, followed by Alice Robinson (394), Rust (343) and Eicher (319).
Laurence St. Germain of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., moved up a spot in Tuesday's second run to 13th in the Canadian top honors, 3.97 seconds behind Shiffrin. Amelia Smart of Invermere, British Columbia, placed 23rd out of 24 finishers.
All of Shiffrin's wins this season were over a full second, and three of them were over 1.5 seconds: 1.66 for Levi Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 at Copper Mountain, Colorado, before her final appearance in the French Alps.
Do the math and the average margin is 1.5025 seconds.
“I just insist. I don't ask questions. Sometimes you just have to get on with it,” Shiffrin said. “Catch that feeling.”
Opponents faced difficulties
Lena Duerr, the German who was third after the first run, went off course at the start of the second descent.
Lara Colturi, an Italian-born skier competing for Albania, straddled the gate near the end of her first run, ending a streak of three straight slalom podium finishes.
Mikaela Shiffrin won her fourth consecutive World Cup slalom race in Courchevel, France.
Holdener flips over and lands on his back.
Wendy Holdener managed to finish in seventh place despite a setback at the end of her first run.
Holdener hit a hole at the finish line and was thrown into the air and landed on her back. Wincing in pain for a few moments, she stood up and left. It was not immediately clear whether she was injured, but she competed in the second run.
Reigning World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Lutik and Olympic silver medalist Katharina Liensberger, the next two starters, dropped out halfway through.
This is the third slalom in a row in which Lutich failed to finish.
Laurence Saint-Germain of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Quebec, finished 13th at the FIS Mountain Slalom World Cup in Courchevel, France.
Katharina Truppe of Austria finished fourth, and American skier Paula Molzahn moved up from ninth to fifth with the fastest second run.
Shiffrin scored her 68th World Cup slalom victory. She also won gold in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and four years later took gold in the giant slalom at the PyeongChang Games.
But Shiffrin did not win a medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Women's alpine skiing at the Feb. 6-22 Olympics will take place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, where Shiffrin won four medals in her four events at the 2021 World Championships and where Lindsey Vonn holds the record with 12 World Cup victories.
Vonn, who won the downhill last week at age 41, no longer competes in slalom.
Vonn will return to action this weekend to compete in the downhill and super-G in nearby Val d'Isere.
Watch the final run of the FIS Slalom World Cup in Courchevel, France.
