Mikaela Shiffrin paced to the starting gate of her second giant slalom run in Sestriere, Italy, as the final racer on Saturday. The leader after the first run, the slalom ace could win her first World Cup giant slalom outright.
What’s more, Shiffrin’s rival for the World Cup overall title, Swiss Lara Gut, had made mistakes minutes earlier and sat third.
But Shiffrin neither notched the benchmark victory nor padded her standings lead on Gut. She made a critical mistake near the top of the course, needing to correct swiftly to avoid missing a gate.