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Scheib seals World Cup giant slalom with Are win, Shiffrin fifth after scare / Photo: © TT News Agency/AFP
Scheib seals World Cup giant slalom with Are win, Shiffrin fifth after scare
Austrian Julia Scheib won her fifth giant slalom of the season in Are on Saturday to secure the discipline globe for the first time with US star Mikaela Shiffrin finishing fifth after a scare to remain on track for the overall World Cup title.
The 31-year-old Shiffrin had been on pace for a blistering first run before making a significant mistake at the bottom of the course to finish in 12th.
But the American still managed a fifth-place finish after the second run allowing her to maintain a comfortable lead in the overall World Cup standings over Germany's Emma Aicher, who finished fourth in Are.
While Shiffrin will have to wait to find out if she has secured her sixth overall title, Scheib was able to celebrate wildly in the finish area.
The 27-year-old Austrian, who has been competing on the world circuit since 2018 had never won a World Cup race before this winter, and is now guaranteed the overall giant slalom title.
But the winter of 2025-26 saw her breakthrough on home soil in Solden, before stringing together further successes in Tremblant, Semmering and Kranjska Gora.
"It's an incredible feeling. I gave it my all because I absolutely wanted to win," Scheib told Austrian public broadcaster ORF.
The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics had been a setback for Scheib, who had to settle for fifth place in her discipline, as Italy's Federica Brignone took gold.
"I managed to move on quite quickly," Scheib said on Saturday. "It was important to perform well today, and it worked."
Second in the first run, Scheib saw her main rival Swiss Camille Rast crash out in the second run after making a mistake.
Second place went to American Paula Moltzan, 0.36sec behind Scheib, with New Zealander Alice Robinson third at 0.75sec.
Scheib now has a 189-point lead over Rast, with only one race remaining, the Lillehammer finale in a week, with a maximum of 100 points up for grabs.
Shiffrin finished 2.22sec behind in fifth having managed to limit the damage from her first run.
Solid in the second run, the skier from Vail, Colorado, ultimately finished just behind her last remaining rival in the overall standings, Germany's Emma Aicher, who was fourth, 1.74sec back.
The gap between the two skiers is now 120 points with the slalom in Are on Sunday before next week's races in Lillehammer.
Brignone, who achieved a magnificent double in Cortina by winning both the Super-G and giant slalom, was not present in Are, having decided in early March to end her season, which has been disrupted by the after-effects of her serious left leg injury sustained in April 2025.
L.Lopez--SFF
