Mikaela Shiffrin bounces back from Olympic dismay with World Cup title

Mikaela Shiffrin won skiing’s overall World Cup title for the fourth time on Thursday, fueled by speed races that turned what was expected to be a tough battle with Petra Vlhova into a runaway success.

Shiffrin finished second in the super-G at the World Cup finals one day after a surprise victory in the downhill to put more pressure on Vlhova for the overall title.

The Slovakian skier had to finish no worse than seventh to stop Shiffrin from extending her lead in the standings beyond 200 points with only their specialty slalom and giant slalom races left over the weekend. The defending champion finished 17th, outside the top 15 scoring places, to trail Shiffrin by 236 points.

Shiffrin sat in the snow watching her rival’s run, shielding her eyes behind sunglasses, and smiled in her moment of victory. Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway won the race and was the first to greet Shiffrin with a long hug. Shiffrin’s boyfriend, Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, was at the top of the slope preparing to race in the men’s super-G. He is the champion in that discipline.

Shiffrin earned her fourth giant crystal globe trophy after winning three straight overall titles from 2017-19, and one month after struggling at the Beijing Olympics. American skier Lindsey Vonn also won four overall titles in her career, trailing behind only Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proll’s six titles in the 1970s.

In the super-G, Shiffrin finished 0.05 seconds behind Mowinckel. Michelle Gisin of Switzerland was third, 0.13 behind. The season-long super-G title had already been secured by Federica Brignone of Italy, who placed 19th on Thursday. Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami missed a gate and did not finish.

After enduring one of the toughest months of