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ÅRE, Sweden — Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin dominated the opening run of the penultimate slalom of the World Cup season Sunday, but her main rival in the overall standings was second to keep the pressure on the American.
Shiffrin had a free-flowing run on the Störtloppsbacken course to build a lead of 0.51 seconds over runner-up Emma Aicher.
In recent weeks, the German all-event skier has become a threat to Shiffrin's quest for what would be the American's record-equaling sixth overall title.
With five events remaining, Aicher trails leader Shiffrin by 120 points, with each race win worth 100 points.
Focusing on slalom and GS this season, and two starts in super-G, Shiffrin has amassed 1,186 points in total, including 780 from the slalom discipline. She already locked up her record ninth slalom globe in January, weeks before the Olympics.
Aicher has gathered eight podiums this season across slalom, super-G and downhill, with three wins from the speed events. Third is her best result in slalom.
Winning the race would mark Shiffrin's eighth slalom victory of the World Cup season, matching her own shared best mark from 2018-19, which was previously only achieved by Croatian great Janica Kostelic 25 years ago.
On Sunday, Katharina Truppe of Austria was 0.57 behind in third, and the rest of the field had to make up at least seven-tenths in the second run.
Camille Rast, the only racer other than Shiffrin to win a slalom this season, was ninth as the Swiss skier trailed Shiffrin by 1.28 seconds.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
