Mikaela Shiffrin heads to Flachau, Austria aiming for the top of the World Cup podium once again in the penultimate women’s Alpine skiing slalom event before the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 begin on 6 February.
The Team USA superstar won the first five FIS World Cups of the season before just missing out on a sixth consecutive top spot after coming second to Swiss world champion Camille Rast in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
The twosome will duke it out in Austria in what could foretell a similar showdown at the Winter Olympics’ venue, the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the women’s slalom takes place on 18 February.
Shiffrin has made the podium in all previous outings in Flachau, bar her first ever showing in December 2011, in which she registered a DNF. Since then, the 30-year-old has achieved five top spots, two second places, and a trio of third places.
Rast, meanwhile, secured victory in the Flachau race this time last year, with two sixth-place finishes and a 19th spot the 26-year-old’s other results.
One final World Cup women’s slalom event is scheduled for 25 January in Špindlerův Mlýn, Czechia before the Winter Games in Italy begin, while post Milano Cortina 2026, the season continues with two more slalom races in Are, Sweden (15 March), and Lillehammer, Norway on 24 March to round out Olympic year.
Shiffrin currently leads the World Cup rankings in slalom on 580 points to Rast’s 362, with the pair also currently topping the overall list (823 points to 703, respectively).
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Milano Cortina Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina 2026.