Mikaela Shiffrin, with second-run rally, wins her sixth straight World Cup slalom

The course was especially treacherous. She was uncharacteristically trailing after the first run. And still, Mikaela Shiffrin was up to the task.

The American Alpine skiing legend delivered the best second run Sunday on a choppy course in Semmering, Austria, to come from behind and win her sixth straight World Cup slalom race, including all five to start this Olympic year.

Shiffrin finished the second run in 53.58 seconds, for a total time of 1:48.82, just enough to edge Switzerland’s Camille Rast by 0.09 seconds. Albania’s Lara Colturi took third, 0.57 back. It was Shiffrin’s 106th career World Cup win, an Alpine skiing record.

“I honestly don’t know,” Shiffrin said when asked how she did it. “It didn’t feel good. I didn’t expect to come down to the green light. It’s been one of those days.”

Shiffrin’s slalom streak dates back to March, when she won the event at the year-end finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. The 30-year-old has been undefeated so far in 2025-26, winning all of the first four slaloms by more than 1.2 seconds — huge margins in the short slalom races.

Sunday’s race, though, was a lot closer after Shiffrin didn’t get off to her typical sterling start. With starting bib No. 4, Shiffrin briefly led near the midway point of the first run but ended up in fourth, 0.54 off the lead, behind each of the day’s first three racers. It was the first time this season she’d finished the opening run without the lead.

Shiffrin stayed in fourth through the rest of the first run on what proved to be a challenging day. With a deteriorating course, 39 out of 79 skiers failed to finish the first run, the worst attrition rate since the sport began tracking it in 1999, according to the Peacock broadcast. Five more skiers went out in the second run. “More a rock fight than a race,” Peacock announcer Steve Schlanger called it.

Just before Shiffrin’s second leg, Austria’s Katharina Truppe delivered a sparkling run to take the lead by 1.81 seconds over the field. Shiffrin responded with a run more than a half-second better to take the lead.

With three skiers left, Austria’s Katharina Liensberger and Colturi both struggled and lost their leads on Shiffrin. It came down to Rast, who was holding her lead through the first half of the run before a late error cost her just enough time to slip behind Shiffrin on the podium.

.@MikaelaShiffrin comes back from her biggest deficit to a victory in slalom since 2013, earning her fifth (5/5) slalom win of the season💪#stifelusskiteam pic.twitter.com/zShU0nu4V6

— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) December 28, 2025

“Today was hard,” Shiffrin said. “And you can see the skiing from these women; it was really hard today. Tough conditions. … I did my best, best possible run.”

After Liensberger (0.91 back) and Truppe (0.93) in fourth and fifth, respectively, no other skier was within 2.75 seconds of Shiffrin.

On Saturday, Shiffrin continued her climb back in the giant slalom, the faster of the slalom disciplines, on the same Panorama course in Semmering. She finished eighth place in each of the two runs, ending up in sixth overall, tied for her third-best showing of the season.

Austria’s Julia Scheib won the race, beating out Rast and Sweden’s Sara Hector, as the 27-year-old’s breakout year continued. Schieb’s three giant slalom wins are the first three World Cup victories of her career, and she’s now a top contender in the event, along with New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, for February’s Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Robinson has won the other two giant slaloms this season, but fell on her first run Saturday on another challenging day in Austria.

In the giant slalom, 22 skiers didn’t finish, including top competitors such as Robinson, Colturi and American Paula Moltzan. Moltzan fell hard on her back during the second run but was back Sunday to compete in Sunday’s slalom, going out in the second run after straddling a gate.

It was during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vt., in November 2024 that Shiffrin fell and suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen, an injury that kept her out of competition for two months. She returned in January and regained her slalom form quickly, pairing with Breezy Johnson to win a world title in the team combined — two teammates competing, one doing a downhill leg, the other a slalom — and winning an individual World Cup slalom two weeks later in Sestriere, Italy.

That was her milestone 100th World Cup victory. She then finished third in a slalom in Sweden in early March and hasn’t lost in the event since.

Giant slalom, though, has been a harder challenge. The 22-time World Cup winner in the event hasn’t made a podium since her injury in Vermont, with a pair of fourth-place finishes representing her best results. Her last win in a giant slalom was two years ago.

Shiffrin has said she intends to focus on her best events at the 2026 Olympics. In Beijing in 2022, she tried an aggressive program, competing in every event, and did not medal in any of them. Now, she’s clearly in top form in slalom and just outside the medal picture in the giant slalom. She also tried a super-G race earlier this month but skied out near the finish.

Meanwhile, the Olympics are arriving soon. The women’s Alpine skiing competition begins Feb. 8. Shiffrin’s first race would likely be Feb. 10, in the team combined. The giant slalom is Feb. 15, and the slalom Feb. 18.

There are three more World Cup races in each of the slalom events before the Games begin, starting next weekend in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.