Mikaela Shiffrin and Sofia Goggia's Crystal Globe races: The heat is on

The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup season is coming to a storming culmination – just two stops remain for the women before the World Cup Finals in Courchevel and Meribel, France, later this month.

That puts the spotlight firmly on ski racing's main stars, including Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States and Sofia Goggia of Italy, as they chase Crystal Globe honours – the prize awarded to the top skier in each of the five main disciplines as well as the overall standings.

Shiffrin, who unexpectedly skied out of three technical races – her specialty – at the recent Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, is level on points at the top of the general World Cup leaderboard with Slovakia's Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhová.

And Goggia, who overcame a potentially season-ending injury to somehow make it back and win downhill silver in Beijing, may have an eye on challenging for the Super-G World Cup crown, with the downhill globe already all-but-decided in her favour.

So what stands in each skier's way?

It's safe to say Shiffrin's Olympic Games did not go to plan. She skied off course in the giant slalom and slalom events – having been defending champion in giant slalom and the 2014 champion in slalom – before again recording a DNF in the slalom portion of the combined.

In her six events in China, her best finish was fourth in the mixed team parallel slalom event – the United States being pipped by Norway in the bronze-medal final. Her best individual result was ninth in Super-G.

However, that disappointment is serving as motivation for the American, who told Olympics.com in an interview shortly after her final event: "I have won in my career and I'm going to win again, and ironically, I'm going to win because of the skiing that I've been