Ski: Sensational Shiffrin takes St Moritz downhill for 91st victory

Mikaela Shiffrin produced a sensational run in the downhill at St Moritz on Saturday to claim her 91st World Cup victory and extend her lead at the top of the overall standings.

It was only the fourth win in the discipline, and her first since March 2022, for the American who clasped her mouth in disbelief when Sofia Goggia finished 0.15 seconds behind in second.

"Winning World Cup races is hard and I never take it for granted," said Shiffrin who now has three World Cup wins this season after picking up two in slalom.

"Especially this season. There's so many athletes who can win and I never expect to be in front of somebody.

"Every time I race I know I have to really earn that if I want to be on the podium and winning, and today is no different."

Shiffrin, 28, wearing number 3 on her bib, skied with great precision, cleverly negotiating a long section that was more favourable to speed specialists, before mastering a more technical intermediate section.

"I felt very good with my skiing, but at the very end I had one small mistake. I wasn't sure if the rest of the run was good enough.

"I think the biggest challenge with downhill, for me at least, is how hard you can push on the limit and stay clean and also find the fastest part of the turn where you're accelerating.

"On the turns I felt so much speed and momentum which was wonderful."

Goggia, who was imperious in the super-G on Friday, had to settle for second with another Italian, Federica Brignone, completing the podium, finishing 0.17sec behind Shiffrin.

"I knew that she (Shiffrin) could be really the one to beat today," said Goggia.

"She has already won some downhills in her career, and Shiffrin is always Shiffrin — you can also expect that she comes first."

The five-time holder of the crystal globe and world No.1 for the last two seasons, is now 195 points ahead of Brignone in the overall standings, and 215 clear of Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami who could only finish 13th, 0.89sec behind Shiffrin.

The Slovakian Petra Vlhova, a technical skier who has given St-Moritz a miss, has dropped to fourth place, 229 points behind her rival.

Action in St Moritz concludes with a second super-G on Sunday.