HAFJELL, Norway — Mikaela Shiffrin vs. Emma Aicher for the most prestigious title in women’s skiing will go to the season-ending final race Wednesday.
Shiffrin won yet another slalom Tuesday — her ninth in 10 World Cup starts this season — by a massive margin of 1.32 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener.
That earned Olympic champion Shiffrin 100 points in the race for the World Cup overall title but Aicher’s impressive third place, awarded 60 points, kept the American’s lead in the standings below 100.
Shiffrin will start the season-ending giant slalom Wednesday 85 ahead of Aicher, who must win to deny the American superstar a women’s record-tying sixth overall title in her stellar career.
The odds are stacked in Shiffrin’s favor.
Aicher has never won a World Cup giant slalom and has a career-best finish of fourth, achieved this month at Are, Sweden.
Shiffrin can seal the title herself with a top-15 result Wednesday that will earn at least 16 points.
Holdener gave Shiffrin an assist by taking second place ahead of Aicher by just 0.04. That kept 20 World Cup points off Aicher’s tally.
Shiffrin’s 110th career race win Tuesday is already by far the most in the World Cup by any man or woman.
A sixth overall title Wednesday would match Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll for the women’s World Cup record.
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