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 the night race on Tuesday.
Shiffrin extended her lead in the first run and finished 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.
All of her wins this season were over a full second, and three of them were over 1.5 seconds: 1.66 in Levi, Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 at Copper Mountain, Colorado, before her final appearance in the French Alps.
Opponents trying to catch Shiffrin encountered 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 podiums.
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.
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. Shiffrin did not medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Women's alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics will be held 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. She will return to action this weekend for the downhill and super-G in nearby Val d'Isere.
