Mikaela Shiffrin closes in on title, speed skaters bid farewell; winter sports schedule

Mikaela Shiffrin can move closer to her fourth World Cup overall title, among the winter sports live on Peacock this weekend.

Shiffrin and the women’s Alpine skiing World Cup visit Are, Sweden, for a giant slalom and slalom, the last stop before the four-race World Cup Finals.

The focus will be on Shiffrin and Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova, the world’s top two skiers this season. Last weekend, Shiffrin surged ahead in the race for the overall title, the biggest annual prize in ski racing.

She finished second and fourth in a GS and super-G, while Vlhova had a DNF and an 18th, dropping from a tie to 117 points behind with six races left. A race winner receives 100 points, with 80 points to second place and 60 for third place on a descending scale through 30th place.

Shiffrin is guaranteed to stay ahead of Vlhova going into the World Cup Finals if she places fifth or better in each race this weekend. She has been fifth or better in 10 of the 11 giant slaloms and slaloms that she has finished this season.

In the men’s World Cup, Swiss Marco Odermatt has a 189-point lead over Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde with seven races left. Kilde does not race slalom and rarely does giant slalom, so Odermatt should have his first overall title all but clinched after this week’s slalom and giant slaloms.

Elsewhere, the speed skating World Cup Finals will be a farewell for retiring Dutchwoman Ireen Wüst, who in Beijing earned her 12th and 13th medals and became the first person to win an individual medal at five Olympics.

Swede Nils van der Poel, who swept the 5000m and 10,000m at the Olympics, has said the Finals will be his last competition before elite retirement, though he could come back as he has done before.

Alpine Skiing World