Mikaela Shiffrin Claims Sixth Straight Slalom Win, Calls Out "Not Safe" Course

In Semmering, Austria, American ski racing star Mikaela Shiffrin added to her slalom streak on Sunday, with her fifth consecutive win in the discipline since the World Cup season started. 

Across two runs, Shiffrin tallied a quicker time than Switzerland’s Camille Rast and Albania’s Lara Colturi. They placed second and third, respectively.  

It was, of course, another triumphant moment for Shiffrin, who, last season, seriously injured her oblique muscles and spent part of that winter on the sidelines. But the skier also expressed doubts about the quality of the Semmering course, raising concerns that it put her fellow competitors at risk.

“I have to say this: It was not safe to ski for the girls,” Shiffrin said in an interview with the Austrian TV channel ORF Sport. “For me, don’t question it, bib four on the first run, it’s not a problem, right. But for these women starting bib 13, 15, 18, in the 60s, this is not OK.”

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Thirty-nine of the 79 women competing didn’t finish their first runs. NBCreported that, including the DNFs from the second runs, this was the worst DNF rate in a World Cup since 1999, when tracking began. 

To harden the course after a stretch of warm weather, organizers injected salt and water. But then the course’s surface broke multiple times, with conditions improving as the temperature fell, according to the Associated Press.

“The conversation I had with a lot of the athletes is that it was very scary to ski, especially on the first run,” Shiffrin said after the race, according to NBC. 

“That’s a pity because the sport is beautiful and we want to share that with people. We don't want to show the top seven going and then the course blowing apart,” she continued. 

Following the difficult Semmering race, Shiffrin remains atop the overall women’s World Cup leaderboard. She’s also nearing her personal best streak of seven straight slalom wins—a feat she’s achieved twice. 

Shiffrin’s only one win away from meeting that watermark for the third time. She also won the final slalom race of last season in Sun Valley, Idaho, for a total of six straight wins across this winter and the previous winter.

The next women’s slalom race on the World Cup schedule is set for January 4, 2026, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.