With five gates left, Mikaela Shiffrin had a half-second lead over leader Camille Rast. Everything was set for the American to break her duck in the Giant Slalom, especially after not winning in the discipline in just over two years. And then she made a costly error, which forced her to brake and sent her crashing down the rankings after her first run. It all came tumbling down, but Shiffrin did not seem too shaken up about it.

The 31-year-old, who celebrated her birthday the day before the race, was pushing hard and fast in the GS to help boost her overall standings and regrets absolutely nothing.

“A little bit of ‘dumba$$’ and a little bit of ‘efff yeahhh’,” Shiffrin wrote on X. “Mistakes happen…today it happened for me in the first run because I was pushing so hard, which is equally annoying and also exciting!! I was so grateful that it was still enough to give it a go in the second run and climb the ranks!”

The unfortunate but costly mistake sent Shiffrin flying down the ranks as she finished 2.29 seconds behind Rast in the end. Things became even worse when German Emma Aicher produced a career-best performance to climb all the way to fourth at the end of her second run. But that’s when Shiffrin picked herself up and produced an impressive second run to finish fifth.

Yet despite the poor end to her first run, and despite Julia Scheib, Aicher, and others outperforming her, Shiffrin had nothing but praise for her fellow competitors. That is especially in light of Scheib tying up the Giant Slalom crown with an emphatic win at Åre. She especially had a lot of love for the German Aicher, showering her competitor with praise.

“So happy for Julia—first GS globe with STELLAR skiing🥹 So happy for Alice and Paula with their skiing today. And Emma: PB in GS and pushing the overall title race!! Only skier who has achieved top 4 in every discipline—you are a BADASS💪,” Shiffrin added.

Mikaela Shiffrin wins record-extending 109th World Cup race

However, Mikaela Shiffrin’s recovery meant that Aicher only managed to slice off five points from the American’s lead in the race for the overall crystal globe. She now holds a lead of 120 points over Aicher and 223 over Rast, but has now added to that with a big win in the slalom. It’s Shiffrin’s signature event, as she had already secured the title in January before she won the Olympic gold in February.

Although that only came after others put the pressure on, kicked off by Katharina Truppe. She set the pace with a 50.92-second first run, and Emma Aicher (50.73 secs) was the only skier to beat her before Shiffrin arrived. The American finished 0.51 seconds over Aicher’s time to take the lead and never gave up pole position from there.

So much so that she showed exactly why she has more World Cup slalom wins than anyone in history, with her second run. It was a dominant performance as Shiffrin added to her lead to finish 0.94 seconds ahead of Aicher, to secure her 72nd slalom win and a record-extending 109th World Cup win. Even Wendy Holdener and Truppe couldn’t compete, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

“That was really amazing. I was pretty nervous and pretty excited, but in the end, it was challenging to ski,” Shiffrin said, as per Olympics.com.”I pushed really hard, and [am] quite happy to get to the finish too.”

But Aicher’s second-place finish means that Mikaela Shiffrin currently has 1286 points while the German has 1146, giving the American only a 140-point lead in the race for the overall globe. And with four races left in the season (one in each discipline), only time will tell if Shiffrin can secure a record-equaling sixth World Championship gold.