KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Swiss skier Camille Rast brought Mikaela Shiffrin’s six-race World Cup slalom winning streak to an end, edging the American in Slovenia as their rivalry gathers momentum ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Rast held a narrow one-tenth-second lead after the opening run and stretched her advantage to 0.14 seconds in the final run to claim the fourth World Cup victory of her career.
The Swiss skier had also led Shiffrin after the first run in Austria last week, but the American recovered more than half a second on a deteriorating course to snatch a narrow win.
“I gave everything I had this week. Double on the same weekend is quite amazing. I´m so happy,” Rast said, adding that “a lot of energy” was key to her triumph.
“It was a little bit a battle, but I had a lot of fun. And the slope, wow, was amazing, the preparation was top,” Rast added according to AP.
The duo was far ahead of the rest of the field, as Rast´s teammate Wendy Holdener trailed by a massive 1.83 seconds in third.
Shiffrin´s teammate Paula Moltzan in fourth was the only other racer finishing less than two seconds off the pace.
Shiffrin won the final race of last season before taking the first five slaloms in the current campaign and raise her career tally to 69 wins in slalom and 106 overall, both are World Cup records.
Her personal best is seven straight slalom wins; the World Cup record is eight, achieved by Vreni Schneider twice in the 1980s and by Janica Kostelic in 2001.
The next slalom is a night race on Jan. 13 in Flachau, where Rast triumphed last year and Shiffrin won five times in the past.
A downhill and a super-G are scheduled next weekend in another Austrian resort, Zauchensee.
Rast celebrated briefly with both arms in the air after she crossed the finish line. Then she tapped the black mourning band on her left upper arm twice and made the sign of a heart with her hands.
Shortly after earning her maiden career win in a World Cup giant slalom, the Swiss skier dedicated the victory to the victims of the fire at a Crans-Montana bar.
“This week, in my hometown, there was a tragical accident and I think about those families. We race for them this weekend,” said Rast, who was born in Vetroz, a village about 40 kilometres from Crans-Montana in the Canton of Valais.
Rast’s win came a week after she finished second in a GS in Austria for what was then her best career result in the discipline. Her two previous World Cup wins both came in slalom, most recently in January 2025, a month before she added the world title in that discipline.
Rast beat second-placed Julia Scheib of Austria by two-tenths, while Moltzan finished 0.47 behind in third for the American´s second podium result of the season.
Teammate Shiffrin was just over a second behind in fifth, behind Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden, who posted the fastest second-run time.
Nina O´Brien in eighth and Elisabeth Bocock in 14th, matching her career best result from a GS in Sweden in March 2023, rounded off a strong showing by the US ski team.
“It´s a really fun team to be a part of,” Moltzan said. “I mean, I never really know who is going to be quite the fastest in training, but I also feel that way on race day.”
Moltzan raced with a bruised back following a nasty crash in last week´s GS. Her career best result in the discipline is a second place, from the season-opening race in October.
“I am actually happy and a bit relieved. Last week, it was extremely difficult for me. I´m still not feeling maybe a 100 per cent. So, to be able to pull it off feels really nice. I have some bruising on my spine,” Moltzan said.
“Basically, any time I hit a bump doesn´t really feel that good. So lucky that the snow is actually quite smooth here, so it feels less painful.”
Shiffrin holds the women´s record of 22 World Cup wins in the discipline. But with six weeks to go until the Feb. 15 giant slalom at the Olympics, the 2018 gold medalist has not been on a GS podium for 11 World Cup races since January 2024.
