Austrian skier Scheib locks up World Cup GS title. Shiffrin finishes 5th and protects overall lead

ÅRE, Sweden (AP) — Julia Scheib had never won a World Cup race in her eight years on the circuit before the start of this season.

Now the Austrian giant slalom specialist is a five-time winner who has locked up the discipline title with a race to spare.

Scheib won the penultimate GS of the season Saturday after first-run leader Camille Rast skied out early in her final run.

The victory gave Scheib an insurmountable lead of 189 points over her Swiss rival in the GS standings.

“It feels very special, winning the giant slalom globe has been a goal of mine for many years. To achieve it today means a lot to me,” said Scheib, the ninth Austrian winner of this globe but the first since Eva-Maria Brem took it in 2016.

Mikaela Shiffrin improved from 12th following a costly mistake in the opening run to finish fifth and protect her lead in the overall standings.

Sara Hector was the only other racer who could have threatened Scheib’s title, but the 2022 Olympic gold medalist from Sweden dropped out of the race after sliding off the course and into the safety netting in the first run.

Scheib denied Paula Moltzan a first career victory, finishing 0.36 seconds ahead of the American. Alice Robinson of New Zealand was 0.75 behind in third.

Limiting the damage after her first run, Shiffrin lost just five points on second-ranked Emma Aicher of Germany, who finished the race in a career-best fourth, and won 55 points on Rast.

Shiffrin now leads Aicher by 120 points and Rast by 223 and could increase her lead in Sunday’s slalom, which is the American star’s strongest event.

After this weekend, only the World Cup Finals with four races remain.

“I felt a really good mentality, both runs. In GS racing, it’s so important to be willing to take the speed,” Shiffrin said. “I felt really positive things.”

Shiffrin’s mishap came near the end of what might have been the fastest run by far in the opening leg.

In an all-attacking run, the American star was more than half a second ahead of race leader Rast at the last split time when she came off the course shortly before the finish and had to brake to make the next gate.

“I was just not really expecting to get like a kind of a little bit of a jump on this last roller,” said Shiffrin, who started in the 300th World Cup race of her career, a day after her 31st birthday.

“My goal this run was to be really attacking, then I had more speed than I expected,” she added. “For the rest of the run, that was the best run in GS skiing I had in a race this year. I’m so happy with that.”

Shiffrin holds the women’s record for most career GS wins with 22 but hasn’t won a race in the discipline since December 2023.

Following two crashes in a downhill and a GS in 2024, Shiffrin has been working her way back up in the discipline and got her first podium result in two years when she placed third at a race in Czechia in January.

Shiffrin’s performance in GS impressed her teammate Moltzan.

“Mikaela is coming back in peak form, I think,” said Moltzan, who earned her fifth podium of the season and 10th overall, though her maiden victory is missing.

“Going into this race I wasn’t so confident, I had a tough Olympics in GS, so to know that my GS skiing is still at the level in the World Cup where I left it makes me a lot more confident,” added Moltzan, who placed 15th in the Olympic GS last month.

Olympic GS champion Federica Brignone ended her season two weeks ago to continue rehab after the Italian returned from a broken leg just weeks before the Games.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing