03/25/26 07:09:00
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03/25 07:08 CDT Mikaela Shiffrin holds off Emma Aicher to win record-tying 6th
overall World Cup skiing title
Mikaela Shiffrin holds off Emma Aicher to win record-tying 6th overall World
Cup skiing title
HAFJELL, Norway (AP) --- Mikaela Shiffrin secured a record-tying sixth women's
overall World Cup skiing title by holding off a challenge from emerging German
rival Emma Aicher in the final race of the season Wednesday.
Shiffrin needed only to finish in the top 15 of a giant slalom and the American
standout secured that before Aicher even began her second run.
Aicher needed to win the race and hope that Shiffrin finished 16th or worse to
clinch her first title.
Shiffrin was only 17th after the first run but came down in first position in
the second and then clinched it when the next two starters placed behind her.
After being told it was over, Shiffrin dropped to her knees, put her right hand
to her face and appeared to be in tears as she asked her team, "Are you sure?"
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Shiffrin's fiancee and the 2020 overall champion, was
with her.
The 31-year-old Shiffrin matched Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Prll,
who won her six titles in the 1970s.
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.
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 was 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.
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.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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