Team USA’s superstar won the first five FIS World Cups of the season before narrowly missing out on a sixth consecutive top finish after finishing second behind the Swiss world champion Camille Rast and Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
The pair will battle it out in Austria in what could portend a similar showdown at the site of the Winter Olympics, the Alpine Ski Center Tofane in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the women’s slalom will take place on February 18.
Shiffrin has made the podium at all previous performances in Flachau, apart from her first ever show in December 2011, where she registered a DNF. Since then, the 30-year-old has achieved five top finishes, two second places and a trio of third places.
Rast, meanwhile, took victory in the race in Flachau this time last year, with two sixth places and a 19th place, the 26-year-old’s other results.
A final Women’s World Cup slalom event is scheduled for January 25 in Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Republic, before the Winter Games begin in Italy, while after Milano Cortina 2026 the season continues with two more slalom races in Are, Sweden (March 15), and Lillehammer, Norway on March 24 to round out the Olympic year.
Shiffrin currently leads the World Cup rankings in slalom with 580 points to Rast’s 362, with the pair also currently topping the overall list (823 points to 703 respectively).
As the National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation in the Milano Cortina Games depends on the choice of their NOC to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina 2026.
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