Mikaela Shiffrin wins record-matching 8th WC slalom this season

Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin secured a record-tying eighth World Cup win of the season in the slalom on Sunday in Are, Sweden.

This was the final race of the season before the World Cup Finals, and Shiffrin won in a time of one minute, 43.35 seconds, beating second-place finisher Emma Aicher of Germany by 0.94 seconds and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland by exactly one second.

The victory was Shiffrin's 109th in World Cup action and 72nd in slalom alone.

Shiffrin, 31, matched a record that she reached in 2018-19 and shares with Croatian Janica Kostelic, who accomplished the feat in 2000-01. Shiffrin can set the record outright by winning the World Cup Finals slalom on March 24 in Lillehammer, Norway.

"There's still some pushing to do," Shiffrin said, per USA Today. "Like you can see, Emma is skiing just incredible in every event, so I try to stay (with that) fighting spirit."

Shiffrin already has clinched the season slalom title, but she also is leading the race for the overall World Cup title. She has 1,286 points in the overall standings, 140 more than the 22-year-old Aicher. There are four events remaining -- one each of downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom at the World Cup Finals.

Shiffrin's specialties are the technical races of giant slalom and slalom, not the downhill and super-G speed races.

"Just the fact that I can stand here and say that I'm in contention is huge for me. I am very proud of that," Aicher said. "But Shiffrin is still far ahead of me, so it's going to be very hard."

--Field Level Media