03/25/26 04:27:00
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03/25 04:25 CDT Mikaela Shiffrin's overall lead under threat from Emma Aicher
in final ski race of the season
Mikaela Shiffrin's overall lead under threat from Emma Aicher in final ski race
of the season
HAFJELL, Norway (AP) --- Mikaela Shiffrin's attempt at a record-tying sixth
women's overall World Cup skiing title is under threat from Emma Aicher after
the American standout placed 17th and her emerging German rival was third in
the first run of a giant slalom Wednesday.
Shiffrin needs to finish in the top 15 to secure the title in the final race of
the season, while Aicher needs to win the race and hope that Shiffrin finishes
16th or worse.
Shiffrin led Aicher by 85 points entering the race. Wins are worth 100 points.
Valerie Grenier of Canada leads the race 0.02 seconds ahead of 2022 Olympic
champion Sara Hector and 0.26 ahead of Aicher.
Shiffrin trailed Grenier by 1.55.
The 22-year-old Aicher has never won a World Cup giant slalom and has a
career-best finish of fourth, achieved this month at Are, Sweden. The only
current skier who competes in every event, Aicher is aiming for her first
overall title after taking home two silver medals --- in downhill and team
combined --- from last month's Milan Cortina Olympics.
Aicher, who has a Swedish mother and a German father and grew up mostly in
Sweden, won three World Cup races this season --- one downhill and two super-Gs.
The 31-year-old Shiffrin is aiming to match Austrian downhill great Annemarie
Moser-Prll for the women's World Cup record.
Moser-Prll won five straight titles from 1971-75 then a sixth in 1979.
Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and
'23.
Lindsey Vonn is third on the women's list with four overall titles.
Marcel Hirscher leads the men's list with eight overall titles.
It's been another stellar season for Shiffrin, who claimed the third Olympic
gold of her career by dominating the slalom at the Milan Cortina Games.
Shiffrin also won nine of the 10 World Cup slaloms this season and has a record
110 victories across all disciplines --- by far the most in the World Cup by
any man or woman. Ingemar Stenmark is next best with 86 wins in the 1970s and
'80s.
Julia Scheib already clinched the discipline title in the penultimate GS of the
season; while Olympic GS champion Federica Brignone shut her season down early.
American coach Alek Glebov was setting the second run.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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