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Mikaela Shiffrin, who dominated the first four World Cup slalom events this season, managed to maintain her winning streak ahead of the 2026 Olympics.
Not that Sunday night's slalom in Austria, the last event of the calendar year, would have been much fun for the American ski star.
Shiffrin was half a second behind in the first run and ahead of world champion Camille Rast of Switzerland, but then worsened race conditions on the Panorama circuit.
The American skier recorded the fastest second run of the day (53.58) and was more than half a second ahead of Camille Rast, who was in the lead after the first run.
“I have to say this: it was not safe for the girls to ski,” Shiffrin told Austrian television. “For me, don’t question it, starting number 4 in the first race is not a problem, right. But for those women who started with bib numbers 13, 15, 18 in the 60s (start numbers), this is not normal.”
Recent mild weather has affected the track and organizers have attempted to stabilize the surface by pumping in water and salt.
However, during the afternoon run, which began at 2:15 p.m., the surface broke in more and more places.
Then, three and a half hours later, conditions improved slightly for the evening session as temperatures dropped.
“It was a very difficult and distracting day,” Shiffrin said. “As far as I'm concerned there were no serious injuries, but the way the surface was breaking… The second run was obviously a little better, but I'm disappointed with how it went for these women.”
Only 40 of the 77 starters completed the first session, and a gap of 5.94 seconds was still enough to qualify for the final race.
“It has to be a good show, but it has to be something that the athletes want to do and are not afraid at the start, looking at the first two corners with these huge holes. There's a better way to do it, that's all,” Shiffrin said.
In her latest run, Shiffrin certainly did it better.
The American was fourth, more than half a second off the pace, in the first session on a rapidly deteriorating track, but set the fastest time of the evening ahead of first-run leader Rast, who finished 0.09 seconds behind. Italian-born prodigy Lara Colturi, 19, who competes for Albania, was a distant third with a score of 0.57.
“Today was a really difficult day, tough conditions, really tough fight and pressure. And, oh, I did my best, the best I could,” Shiffrin said in an on-track interview after her record-tying 106th career win.
“It wasn't very pleasant. I didn't expect to be given the green light. It was one of those days where I said, “Let's refocus, be positive and give it a try.”
Five straight wins to start the season matches Shiffrin's personal best start to the 2018-19 season.
She won last season's final race and then dominated the first four slaloms of the current Olympic campaign, winning them by an average margin of 1.5 seconds before adding Sunday's narrow win.
In the first moto, Shiffrin led Rast by one-hundredth of a second at the halfway point, but lost significantly to the Swiss rider at the bottom of the distance.
“It's quite difficult. I think it's a little like skiing, too round for what's possible,” said Shiffrin, a 2014 Olympic champion and holder of a women's World Cup record 69 slalom wins.
She extended her lead over second-place Colturi to 220 points in the slalom standings. The World Cup schedule includes three more slaloms in January before the Cortina Winter Olympics in Milan, followed by two more in March. Winning the race is worth 100 points.
Best Canadian
Laurence St. Germain of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Quebec was the top Canadian, finishing in 12th place.
Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, who won the race last season to claim the world slalom title, was 3.75 seconds back in eighth place.
Shiffrin's teammate Paula Molzahn was seventh after the first run but saddled the gate in the second, a day after she crashed and fell on her back and head in a giant slalom on the same hill. This race was won by Austrian Julia Scheib, who does not compete in slalom.
The Women's World Championships will take place in Slovenia with giant slalom and slalom events in Kranjska Gora next weekend.
