Mikaela Shiffrin wins fifth slalom season title

Reporting from OFTERSCHWANG, Germany —  Mikaela Shiffrin added a second crystal globe in as many days to her ever-growing collection of skiing trophies Saturday.

A day after locking up her second straight World Cup overall championship, the American secured her fifth season title in the slalom.

Shiffrin formally won the discipline title as soon as her only remaining challenger, Petra Vlhova, failed to get the top-two result the Slovakian skier needed in the penultimate event of the season to remain with striking range.

And fer her part, Shiffrin wrapped up the title in style by winning the race, edging Wendy Holdener of Switzerland by 0.09 seconds. Olympic champion Frida Hansdotter of Sweden was 0.72 behind in third, and Vlhova finished fourth.

“I was happy yesterday, but I was still thinking how I could prepare best for the race today and what I needed to do to come out and be motivated and ski really fast again,” said Shiffrin, who finished third in Friday’s giant slalom on the same hill to secure the overall title before skipping the public bib draw in the evening.

“It’s a big challenge to do that at the end of the season, but Wendy really wants to win, Frida is coming off her gold medal in slalom in South Korea, so everybody has her own motivation,” Shiffrin said.

Saturday’s result stretched the American’s lead over Vlhova in the slalom standings to 225 points with just the season-ending race at the World Cup finals in Sweden remaining.

It was the American’s fifth slalom title in the past six seasons (she missed five races in the discipline in 2016 with a knee injury). Only Swiss great Vreni Schneider won more slalom titles in her career — six.

Shiffrin, who turns 23 on Tuesday, set a World Cup record on Saturday as she became the first 22-year-old skier, male or female, with 42 World Cup wins.

Also, getting her 11th win of the season was a personal best, though Schneider (14 in 1988-89) and American teammate Lindsey Vonn (12 in 2011-12) have won more races in a single season.

Shiffrin was planning to take a few days off before flying to Are, Sweden, and compete in the last GS and slalom races of the season, with nothing more at stake than just the race win.

“It’s still my goal to finish the season as strong as I can,” Shiffrin said, adding she would “try to have some fire” for the final stop of the season.