Remarkable Shiffrin wins overall World Cup title

COURCHEVEL: American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's overall World Cup title for the fourth time in her career on Thursday (Mar 17), bouncing back from a disastrous performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Shiffrin finished second in the Super-G in Courchevel in the French Alps to give her an unassailable 236-point lead over her closest rival, Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, with two races left this season.

Vlhova, the defending champion, finished 17th, outside the top 15 scoring places.

Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway won the race and immediately congratulated Shiffrin with a hug.

At 27, Shiffrin equals the record of her retired compatriot Lindsey Vonn by winning the crystal globe trophy for a fourth time.

She set up the win with a rare victory in the downhill 24 hours earlier.

"The whole season has been ups and downs, and the downs have been very, very low for me, some of the toughest moments of my career and of my life," Shiffrin said.

"Every time I have a tough moment, it brings back the other tough moments and I just get so low, and I just want to go home. I felt it five days ago, I felt it at the Olympics.

"So it's quite special to come here after everything to be able to accomplish and achieve maybe the biggest goal I had for myself this season."

Shiffrin won three straight overall World Cup titles from 2017 to 2019 before the death of her father Jeff in 2020 led to her taking most of that year off.

It is a remarkable return to form for the American, who failed to win a single medal at the Olympics.

Her loss of form in China was all the more inexplicable because she has finished in the top three 14 times this season, and recorded five victories.