Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates with her crystal globe at the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup on March 17, 2019 in Soldeu, Andorra.
The battle to determine who would win the crystal globe in women’s giant slalom came down to the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Finals on Sunday in Soldeu, Andorra, also the final race of the entire alpine world cup season.
Mikaela Shiffrin, whose remarkable season already included titles in overall, slalom and super-G, entered the day 97 points ahead of Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova in the standings. If Vlhova didn’t win the race, Shiffrin needed only to finish in the top 15 to claim globe No. 4 and her first giant slalom title.
Sitting in the top spot after a first-run time of 1 minute, 9.74 seconds, Shiffrin had the final run of the day. By the time she started Vlhova was in second place and Shiffrin was already guaranteed the title.
Just for good measure, however, Shiffrin locked down the victory with a total time of 2:23.17. New Zealand’s Alice Robinson was .30 seconds behind with a time of 2:23.47 and Vlhova finished in third at 2:23.58, .41 seconds off Shiffrin’s time.
The victory is Shiffrin’s 10th of her career in giant slalom, the most among U.S. women.
The 24-year-old from Eagle-Vail, Colorado, is the first skier — male or female — to win the overall, slalom, giant slalom and super-G titles in one season. Sunday’s race was also the two-time Olympic champion’s 17th world cup victory of the season and 60th career victory after also winning the slalom finale on Saturday.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
