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Mikaela Shiffrin secured a record-tying sixth women’s overall World Cup skiing title by holding off a challenge from Germany’s Emma Aicher in the final race of the season.
Shiffrin needed only to finish in the top 15 of Wednesday’s giant slalom in Lillehammer, and the American secured that before Aicher had even began her second run. Shiffrin finished 11th and Aicher – who needed to win the race and hope that Shiffrin finished 16th or worse to clinch her first title – finished 12th.
“It’s quite emotional,” Shiffrin said. “This thing sums up a whole season of work and fighting with the whole team and I have to say to Emma that her skiing has been just outstanding and today it was just so cool to watch her, especially on the first run.
“I think the outcome of this day is that she can do this. And I think that’s the coolest thing about ski racing – that anything is possible,” Shiffrin added.
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 she was told she had won the title, Shiffrin dropped to her knees, put her hand to her face and appeared to be in tears as she asked her team, “Are you sure?”
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Shiffrin’s fiance and the 2020 overall champion, was with her.
“I’m really, really grateful to be in this position now,” Shiffrin said. “It’s really a big, big emotion but I’m also grateful for the fight.”
The 31-year-old matched Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll, who won her six titles in the 1970s. Moser-Pröll 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 2023. Shiffrin finished this season on 1,410 points, 87 points ahead of Aicher.
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 last month’s Milano 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 1980s.
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 the 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.
Valerie Grenier of Canada won Wednesday’s race to claim her third career World Cup victory. Mina Fürst Holtmann of Norway finished second on home snow, 0.43sec behind, and discipline champion Julia Scheib was third, 0.57 behind.
