Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) reached DEEP into her seemingly bottomless Alpine ski bag to overcome chaotic course conditions and pull out a gutsy, come-from-behind victory in Semmering, Austria (1:48.82). 

With the win, the Mother of Slalom remained perfect in the discipline (five-for-five) during the 2025-26 World Cup season and earned her sixth straight slalom triumph dating back to last season. It was her all-time leading 106th-career Cup win and eighth in Semmering.

Yesterday’s giant slalom runner-up, Camille Rast (SUI), threw down another impressive pair of runs, nabbing yet another second place finish (+0.09), her third in a row in Cup competition. A blink of an eye separated Rast, the slalom world champion, from Shiffrin on this night. 

Lara Colturi (ALB) fought valiantly to secure third (+0.57). It was the 19-year-old's fourth podium in five slalom races this season. 

A little over 24 hours removed from crashing in the giant slalom, Paula Moltzan (USA) demonstrated her toughness by participating in the slalom with a sore back. She qualified for Run 2 and put together a fast split time in the first sector but straddled a gate leading to a DNF. Generally, it was a tough weekend for Moltzan who failed to finish both races and was worse for wear when it was all set and done.

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) weaving around a gate during the first run of her slalom victory at the Stifel Copper Cup at Copper Mountain.

Michael Madrid-Imagn Images

The Semmering course proved to be difficult, and at times debilitating, to the skiers. On Saturday, one-third of the field DNF'd, a glaring figure that was far exceeded on Sunday. 39 of the 79 racers on the piste did not finish Run 1 (nearly a 50% clip) and if you combine that with the total that DNF'd Run 2 (six), you get 57%. That is by the highest rate this season and the worst in a Cup event since 1999.

"The conversation I had with a lot of the athletes is that it was very scary to ski, especially on the first run,” a frustrated Shiffrin said post-race. “That’s a pity because the sport is beautiful and we want to share that with people. We don't want to show the top seven going and then the course blowing apart.

“I think we can learn from it and move forward as a unit, with the teams, with FIS, with all the governing bodies. I would just hope that that's the case.”

With snow flying up at every turn and a dark blue hue overtaking large chunks of the course, it was clear that the conditions were poor. Layer on the fact that it was nighttime, limiting visibility, the competitors had a lot of variables working against them. Maybe that would create an opening for someone not named Shiffrin — who'd been utterly dominant in slalom races this season, winning each of them by an average of 1.5 seconds coming in — to stand atop the podium. 

Rast nearly did it. Colturi was half a second away from becoming the first teenager since Shiffrin to win a World Cup race. However, she's proved time and time (and even more time) again, Shiffrin was inevitable. 

The victory, her seventh out of her last eight in slalom and 13th out of her last 16th, brings the 30-year-old halfway to a slalom season sweep. No other skier, man or woman, has achieved that feat. She also is now one win shy of tying her longest slalom winning streak (seven).

With the final Cup event of 2025 in the books, Shiffrin is the overall and slalom points leader. The next time she, Moltzan and other Alpine skiers are expected to be in action is for a giant slalom and slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on Saturday, January 3.