Mikaela Shiffrin’s World Cup streak ends as Camille Rast wins second straight race

Mikaela Shiffrin’s perfect start to Alpine skiing’s slalom season is over.

Switzerland’s Camille Rast ended the American star’s six-race World Cup winning streak in the discipline, including a 5-for-5 beginning to the 2025-26 schedule, in a stirring battle Saturday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

Rast won her fourth career World Cup race and second in as many days after taking the giant slalom crown Saturday, finishing the two runs in a combined time of 1 minute, 40.2 seconds. Shiffrin was 0.14 behind in second. Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener rounded out the podium, 1.83 back.

Rast and Shiffrin were in a class of their own from the start, with the American finishing the first run a tenth of a second behind the Swiss. No one else was within 0.75 of the lead.

In the second run, Shiffrin looked like she might come from behind to win for the second straight race, delivering a stellar run that was over a full second better than any of the 28 skiers who preceded her. She took the lead from Holdener by 1.69 seconds.

But the 26-year-old Rast was up to the challenge, posting the best time in the second run as well, 0.04 better than Shiffrin’s.

It capped a stellar weekend for Rast, who doubled her career World Cup win total on a weekend with extra meaning for her and the Swiss team. Rast grew up not far from Crans-Montana, the Swiss ski resort town where a New Year’s fire at a bar killed 40 people and injured more than 100 others last week. She dedicated Saturday’s giant slalom win to the victims.

“I gave everything I had this weekend,” Rast said Sunday. “A double on the same weekend is quite amazing. I’m so happy.”

The win moved Rast into second in the slalom standings, behind Shiffrin, and cemented her place as a top challenger to the American, who has more Alpine skiing World Cup wins (106) than anyone, as the 2026 Winter Olympics approach. Rast was also leading last week’s slalom in Semmering, Austria, after the first run before Shiffrin surged back to edge her by 0.09 seconds.

That weekend was marred by a choppy slope that caused several skiers to fall or miss gates. Rast complimented the improved conditions in Slovenia.

“It was a little bit a battle, but I had a lot of fun,” Rast said. “The slope was amazing. Preparation was the top from the last week; it’s perfect.”

Holdener, a slalom medalist at each of the last two Olympics, reached her 53rd career World Cup podium and first in nearly a year. She was also the silver medalist in slalom at the world championships last February.

American Paula Moltzan finished fourth, 1.97 back, with the fourth-best time in each run. No other skier was within two seconds of either Rast or Shiffrin.

Defending World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Ljutić of Croatia missed a gate early in her first run and took her fourth slalom DNF of the season. Albania’s Lara Colturi, the 19-year-old with two slalom runner-up finishes to Shiffrin this season, fell on her opening run.

Before Semmering, Shiffrin had been competing mostly against herself this season. Her first four slalom wins all came by margins of more than 1.2 seconds. But Rast was among the skiers closest to her all along, finishing on the podium twice before matching Shiffrin’s level in Semmering.

Shiffrin’s streak dates back to March, when she won the slalom at the year-end World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. When the slalom season resumed in November, she won again in the opener in Levi, Finland. More wins followed in Austria (twice), Colorado and France.

Giant slalom, the event in which she fell and suffered a puncture wound to her abdomen in November 2024, continues to be a work in progress for Shiffrin. She missed two months of competition recovering and hasn’t been to a podium in that event since before the injury, though she’s close. She finished fifth Saturday for her fifth top-six finish in giant slalom this season.

The Alpine skiing program at the 2026 Olympics begins Feb. 8. The giant slalom is scheduled for Feb. 15; the slalom for Feb. 18.