Mikaela Shiffrin Ties Record With Sixth Overall World Cup Title

Mikaela Shiffrin secured a record-tying sixth women's overall World Cup skiing title by holding off a challenge from emerging German rival Emma Aicher in the final race of the season Wednesday. The clinch came in Hafjell, Norway, where Shiffrin needed only to avoid the back of the field in a giant slalom to make history.

Shiffrin needed only to finish in the top 15 of that giant slalom, and she secured that before Aicher even began her second run. Shiffrin finished 11th, while Aicher, who needed to win the race and have Shiffrin finish 16th or worse to clinch her first title, finished 12th. The day's race itself belonged to Canada's Valerie Grenier, who added to her first-run advantage to claim her third career World Cup victory. Mina Fuerst Holtmann of Norway finished second on home snow, 0.43 seconds behind, and discipline champion Julia Scheib was third, 0.57 behind.

Shiffrin was only 17th after the first run but came down in first position in the second and then clinched it when the next two starters placed behind her. She finished 87 points ahead of Emma Aicher in the closest overall title race since 2015.

"It's quite emotional," Shiffrin said. "This thing sums up a whole season of work and fighting with the whole team and I have to say to Emma that her skiing has been just outstanding and today it was just so cool to watch her, especially on the first run. I think the outcome of this day is that she can do this. And I think that's the coolest thing about ski racing — that anything is possible."

That Shiffrin clinched in a giant slalom is a reminder of what she overcame to claim the big crystal globe for the first time since 2023. She placed 11th in the last race of the 37-race World Cup campaign. In her 10 GS races this season, she finished between third and sixth on eight occasions, a significant improvement from the end of the 2024-25 season.

Slalom remained Shiffrin's dominion all season. She won nine slaloms in 10 World Cup starts, by margins as large as 1.32 seconds over Wendy Holdener in Tuesday's race at the same venue. Nine wins in a discipline in a single season is a best in 60 years on the circuit. The Tuesday victory earned her 100 points toward the overall title; Aicher's third place that day added 60, keeping the gap below 100 heading into the finale.

After Tuesday's slalom, Shiffrin pointed to what the run of titles has cost and required. "This is just a symbol of the work that my team is putting in and all the support I've had these years, especially the last three years, to get back to the chance to be that high level and to win a globe," she said. "With the injuries and with everything, it took a big effort from my team."

The 31-year-old Shiffrin matched Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll, who won her six titles in the 1970s. Moser-Pröll won five straight titles from 1971-75, then a sixth in 1979. Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. Lindsey Vonn is third on the women's list with four overall titles. Marcel Hirscher leads the men's list with eight.

Of Shiffrin's six overall title seasons, this year she raced her fewest speed events and for the first time entered no downhill races at all. Next season, she can break her tie with Moser-Pröll outright. She also led the U.S. women's team to its first Nations Cup title since 1982.

Moser-Pröll, for her part, left little ambiguity about where she places Shiffrin in the sport's history. "One thing is certain for me," Moser-Pröll said, according to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation: "Mikaela is and will remain the best ever.