Mikaela Shiffrin concedes, talks Kilde's 'life and death' crash - ESPN

Mikaela Shiffrin is no longer challenging for a women's record-tying sixth World Cup overall title this month and on Friday praised standings leader Lara Gut-Behrami for her «stunning» skiing.

Shiffrin set out her limited race plans for the rest of the season in an online call from Sweden, where she also spoke about being out injured at the same time as her boyfriend, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

Both crashed hard in downhill races in January, and Shiffrin said the deep laceration Kilde suffered in his calf was «a life-or-death situation.»

Shiffrin returns to racing Sunday, in a slalom at Are, six weeks after being airlifted from the course with knee and leg injuries at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Then, the five-time overall World Cup champion held a 340-point lead in the standings over Gut-Behrami. She now trails by almost 400.

With six races left and a maximum 600 points to win, Shiffrin said she will start no more than three and cannot close the gap from third place. Federica Brignone, the 2020 champion, is Gut-Behrami's only rival for the title.

«I would love to fight for the overall [title], but I also just need to admit where I am this season,» the American star told reporters.

Shiffrin, who turns 29 on Wednesday, will skip the giant slalom on Saturday and the two speed events — downhill and super-G — at the season-ending races on March 22-23 at Saalbach, Austria.

That leaves her two slalom races, at Are and Saalbach on March 16, to likely seal her eighth career title in the season-long discipline standings. The March 17 giant slalom in Saalbach also is an option.

«I can only do what I can do,» Shiffrin said, acknowledging it took her until the past week to reach «race intensity» in training just for slalom.

During