HAFJELL, Norway (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin’s attempt at a record-tying sixth women’s overall World Cup skiing title is under threat from Emma Aicher after the American standout placed 17th and her emerging German rival was third in the first run of a giant slalom Wednesday.
Shiffrin needs to finish in the top 15 to secure the title in the final race of the season, while Aicher needs to win the race and hope that Shiffrin finishes 16th or worse.
Shiffrin led Aicher by 85 points entering the race. Wins are worth 100 points.
Valerie Grenier of Canada leads the race 0.02 seconds ahead of 2022 Olympic champion Sara Hector and 0.26 ahead of Aicher.
Shiffrin trailed Grenier by 1.55.
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 is aiming for her first overall title after taking home two silver medals — in downhill and team combined — from last month’s Milan Cortina 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.
The 31-year-old Shiffrin is aiming to match Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll for the women’s World Cup record.
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 ’23.
Lindsey Vonn is third on the women’s list with four overall titles.
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 the Milan 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 ’80s.
Julia Scheib already clinched the discipline title in the penultimate GS of the season; while Olympic GS champion Federica Brignone shut her season down early.
American coach Alek Glebov was setting the second run.
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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