Mikaela Shiffrin had been riding a hot streak that she'd hoped to take into next month's Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games, but she unfortunately fell short of another win during the World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She crossed the finish line just 0.14 seconds behind Switzerland's Camille Rast on Sunday, bringing Shiffrin's slalom event win streak to an end at six.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist had a 0.10-second time difference to make up after the first run. However, Rast also came in first place in the second run with a time of 49.96, keeping Shiffrin from notching her seventh win in a row.
After the race, Shiffrin had to give her props to 2025 slalom world champion Rast, who also won the giant slalom event over the weekend. According to ESPN, Shiffrin embraced Rast in the finish area before revealing her thoughts on Rast's performance.
“Her skiing is so strong, and it's been building, building, building. The last races, she had some mistakes that cost time,” Shiffrin said. “Today, how I saw her ski the first run, I had to go 120 percent in order to have a shot. So, it was a big, big, amazing day for her.”
Shiffrin also made sure to express that she wasn't disappointed in her outing despite the narrow loss.
“I had a really specific goal for my skiing for the second [run], a little bit technical thing, and I felt like I really accomplished that,” Shiffrin said. “This was the hardest I could push. I pushed so hard, it was like a small mistake here and a small mistake there, and I don't think that cost time. That was just how hard I was trying. I could feel these turns that I wanted to feel.”
The Alpine skiing legend recently beat Rast in a World Cup event in Semmering, Austria, a week ago, coming from behind to finish with a total time of 1:48.82 and putting her ahead by just 0.09 seconds. The win marked Shiffrin's 106th career World Cup win, setting the record for the sport. She had been undefeated in the 2025-26 alpine skiing season until Sunday's loss, with all victories coming by more than a stunning 1.2 seconds.
