LILLEHAMMER, Norway, Mar 25 (AFP): US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin held off Emma Aicher to wrap up the overall World Cup title for a sixth time after Wednesday's season-ending giant slalom.
Shiffrin, who previously won the big crystal globe in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023, needed to finish in the top 15 in Norway to again guarantee herself the big crystal globe.
That meant the 31-year-old American finished with an insurmountable points tally over her closest rival, Germany's Aicher.
Shiffrin finished the season with 1,386 points, while Aicher was second 87pts adrift.
An astonishing return of 980 points out of a possible 1,000 in the slalom allied to her strong giant slalom efforts -- including a podium in Spindleruv Mlyn -- plus two top 23 finishes in super-G were the bedrock to her winning tally.
"This thing sums up the whole season," said Shiffrin, who heaped praise on Aicher.
"Her skiing has been so cool. The outcome of this day is that she can do this. That's the coolest thing about ski racing, that anything is possible. "I was in 17th position after the first run, and you don't get points in 17th here. So, I really could appreciate that this day could be different," Shiffrin said.
"It was a lot of effort to push on the second and I was really happy with my second run, much better timing. I felt much more fluid and just like kind of relaxed, even though I was actually quite stressed."
Shiffrin, whose sixth globe matched Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (1971-5, 1979), added: "I'm really, really grateful to be in this position.
