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SEMMERING, Austria
After waiting 26 months for her second career World Cup giant slalom win, Mikaela Shiffrin needed just one more day to add the third.
On Wednesday, the American earned her second GS win in two days. Her only previous victory in the discipline was in October 2014 ” at the season-opening race in another Austrian resort, Soelden.
The victory raised her total of World Cup wins to 25, with 22 coming in her favorite slalom discipline. Among active skiers, only American teammate Lindsey Vonn, who is currently recovering from a broken arm, has won more races ” 76.
In dense snowfall, Shiffrin built on a narrow first-run lead to beat 2013 world champion Tessa Worley of France by 0.15 seconds, while 2010 Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was 0.18 back in third for her first podium finish of the season.
"It was a really big fight," Shiffrin said."It was tough because you could feel your skis like stopping and going, stopping and going. And I thought, 'This is slow, it has to be.'"
Shiffrin and Worley also finished 1-2 in Tuesday's GS on the same course. Worley won the previous two GS races in Killington, Vermont, and Sestriere, Italy, and now leads Shiffrin by 35 points in the discipline standings.
Shiffrin extended her lead in the overall World Cup standings to 115 points over defending champion Lara Gut of Switzerland, who finished sixth in Wednesday's race.
The three-day event in Austria ends with a floodlit slalom race on Thursday, giving Shiffrin an opportunity to further strengthen her lead. The Olympic champion has won all 11 slaloms she competed in since February 2015, while Gut usually sits out slaloms.
The opening run in the morning hours was hampered by strong winds and snowfall, but conditions even got worse in the afternoon.
"It was so tough. I didn't think I was going to see the green light at the end," said Worley, who briefly led the competition before Shiffrin had her final run."It was so bumpy and you couldn't see anything."