Far away from her mystifying struggles at the Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin has soared back to the summit of Alpine skiing.
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A season that risked being defined by zero medals from six events in China instead ended in triumph in the French Alps on Thursday.
Shiffrin clinched the overall World Cup title, the sport's most coveted season-long prize, with standout racing in the speed disciplines on back-to-back days at the week-long finals.
An expected duel with defending overall champion Petra Vlhova was settled with two races left this weekend in their favoured slalom and giant slalom.
"It's been some high moments this season and it's been some really difficult moments as well," Shiffrin said.
"Ending it on a high (and) finding some really nice moments on the last races, that's really important and very special."
The fourth giant crystal globe trophy in her career, and first since 2019, lifts the 27-year-old Shiffrin to the level of former US teammate Lindsey Vonn in World Cup history.
Only the six overall titles of Annemarie Moser-Proll, the Austrian great who dominated downhill in the 1970s, stands above the two Americans.
It was a surprise win in downhill on Wednesday that fuelled Shiffrin to the title.
She backed it up with a smartly judged second place on Thursday in the super-G to pull away from Vlhova, who failed to score points in either race.
Suddenly her Olympic struggles just a month ago seem like pre-history.
"Just this week, right now, I really enjoy skiing," Shiffrin said, though also acknowledging that she'd had more self-doubt before coming to neighbouring Courchevel and Meribel.
It continued an up-and-down season in which five wins and 14 podium finishes in just 24 World Cup events made her inconsistent Olympics such an outlier.
It also included an enforced break because of a COVID-19 infection in December and she has still been coming to terms with her father's death in an accident at the family home in Colorado two years ago.
"This last week alone was some very low moments (thinking) I should just go home because I don't think I truly have a chance," Shiffrin admitted on Thursday.
"And somewhere we're here now."
The "we" could as easily have referred to her partnership with boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the Norwegian who also celebrated a success this week.
Kilde placed fourth in the men's super-G on Thursday but that discipline title was already locked up, and he also added the downhill crystal trophy on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
