Mishap costs fast Shiffrin 1st-run lead in World Cup GS as Rast and Scheib stand 1-2

Sat, March 14, 2026 at 11:02 AM UTC

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1 / 0APTOPIX Sweden World Cup Alpine SkiingUnited States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during a women's World Cup giant slalom, in Are, Sweden, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati) ()

ÅRE, Sweden (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin had a costly mistake near the end of what might have been the fastest run by far in the opening leg of the penultimate World Cup giant slalom of the season Saturday.

In an all-attacking run, the American star was more than half a second ahead of race leader Camille Rast of Switzerland at the last split time when she came off the course shortly before the finish and had to brake to make the next gate.

Shiffrin finished 2.29 seconds off the lead in 12th, as Rast and Austria’s Julia Scheib stood 1-2 to continue their season-long battle for the GS title.

The mishap could help Shiffrin’s main rivals for the overall title — Rast and Germany’s Emma Aicher — make up ground on the American. Aicher was sixth after the opening run.

“I was just not really expecting to get like a kind of a little bit of a jump on this last roller,” said Shiffrin, who started in the 300th World Cup race of her career, a day after her 31st birthday.

“My goal this run was to be really attacking, then I had more speed than I expected," she added. "For the rest of the run, that was the best run in GS skiing I had in a race this year. I’m so happy with that.”

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Shiffrin holds the women’s record for most career GS wins with 22 but hasn’t won a race in the discipline since December 2023.

Following two crashes in a downhill and a GS in 2024, Shiffrin has been working her way back up in the discipline and got her first podium result in two years when she placed third at a race in Czechia in January.

On Saturday, Rast held a slim 0.11-second lead over Scheib, with Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan 0.56 behind in third.

Alice Robinson of New Zealand had 0.60 seconds to make up in the second run and was the last racer to finish within a second of Rast’s time.

Olympic GS champion Federica Brignone ended her season two weeks ago to continue rehab after the Italian returned from a broken leg just weeks before the Games.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

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