Kirsty Muir has become the first British woman to win the freeski slopestyle and overall park and pipe World Cup titles after finishing second in Saturday’s season finale in Switzerland.
The 21-year-old Scot secured a score of 75.54 in Silvaplana to claim her third consecutive podium of the 2025-26 campaign.
She finished just behind home favourite and Olympic bronze medallist Sarah Hofflin, who took the event victory with a score of 80.07.
However, the Aberdonian’s runner-up placement was more than enough to clinch the slopestyle Crystal Globe with a dominant season total of 280 points.
Record-breaking season points tally
The X Games champion finished a comfortable 69 points ahead of Canadian runner-up Elena Gaskell in the final slopestyle standings.
Alongside a third-place ranking in the big air discipline, the trailblazing skier amassed a combined overall score of 470 points.
This impressive tally allowed her to comfortably defeat closest challenger Naomi Urness by a commanding 78-point margin.
These landmark achievements follow agonizing near-misses at last month’s Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, where she placed fourth in two separate events.
Olympic heartbreak fuels future ambition
Speaking after her recent podium near-misses, the highly-rated freeskier insisted those results only strengthened her resolve to dominate the sport.
“I am really excited to go and try and learn some new tricks. I am excited to see where I can push myself and where I can push the sport,” she said.
“For the next two years I will go and do everything that I would like to do and forget about the Olympics, and then when it comes round to qualification again I will get stuck in.”
Mikaela Shiffrin has won the World Cup slalom in Hafjell to ensure the battle for the overall title against Emma Aicher goes down to Wednesday’s final race.
The American superstar claimed her ninth victory in 10 slalom starts this season by a massive 1.32 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener.
That dominant triumph earned the Olympic champion 100 crucial points in the race for the overall crown.
However, Germany’s Aicher secured an impressive third-place finish to keep the standings gap below the 100-point threshold.
Record-tying sixth title in sight
The 29-year-old will start Wednesday’s season-ending giant slalom holding an 85-point advantage over her closest rival.
Aicher must now secure a victory to deny the lightning-fast skier a women’s record-tying sixth overall championship.
The odds remain heavily stacked in favour of the current standings leader.
Her young challenger has never won a World Cup giant slalom event.
Aicher’s career-best finish in the discipline remains a fourth place achieved earlier this month in Are, Sweden.
Historic milestone awaits
A top-15 result on Wednesday will be enough to guarantee the American secures the 16 points needed to seal the championship independently.
Swiss skier Holdener inadvertently provided a vital assist by edging into second place by just 0.04 seconds.
That narrow margin kept 20 valuable World Cup points off her German opponent’s tally.
Tuesday’s triumph marked a staggering 110th career race win for the former Olympic gold medallist.
Securing the overall crown would see her match Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s long-standing women’s World Cup record.
Italy’s Sofia Goggia has secured her first super-G crystal globe with victory in Kvitfjell, Norway, as the overall World Cup title race intensified.
The 2018 downhill Olympic champion claimed her third super-G win of the season in her trademark aggressive style.
Her triumph in the final women’s speed race of the season brings her career total to five crystal globes, adding to her four downhill titles.
Shiffrin’s lead cut in overall standings
While Goggia celebrated, the battle for the overall World Cup crown tightened dramatically ahead of the final week.
Germany’s Emma Aicher finished fourth on Sunday to cut American great Mikaela Shiffrin’s overall lead to just 45 points.
Shiffrin, chasing a sixth overall title to cap a remarkable season, failed to score after finishing 22nd.
The most successful World Cup skier of all time now has 1,286 points compared to Aicher’s 1,241, with a giant slalom and slalom remaining.
Goggia completes speed set
Goggia finished in the top 10 of all eight super-G races this season, including five podium appearances.
Her closest rival, New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, finished 16th on Sunday after narrowly avoiding a missed gate.
Robinson remained second in the final super-G standings, 163 points behind the formidable Italian.
Switzerland’s Corinne Suter was second in Sunday’s race, with Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann taking third.
“If you want to be a complete speed skier, you have to get both the globes in downhill and super-G,” Goggia said.
“Today I finally did it and I can say I’m a little bit more complete.”
Italian success in Norway
Goggia’s victory capped a triumphant weekend for Italy on the Norwegian slopes.
Laura Pirovano won Saturday’s downhill to secure the downhill crystal globe, finishing 83 points clear of Aicher.
The 28-year-old had never finished on a World Cup podium before March but won three consecutive downhills to claim the title.
Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin has won her eighth World Cup slalom of the season in Åre, Sweden, equaling the single-season record and extending her overall lead on Sunday.
The American star dominated the final race before the World Cup Finals to beat Germany’s Emma Aicher by 0.94 seconds.
Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener finished a further second off the pace to claim third place on the podium.
Overall title battle intensifies
This crucial victory provides much-needed breathing room in the ongoing battle for the crystal globe.
Aicher’s impressive second-place finish marked a career-best slalom result for the German all-rounder.
She now trails the overall leader by 140 points with just four individual discipline races remaining.
“That was really amazing. I was like pretty nervous, pretty excited, but in the end it was challenging to ski,” Shiffrin said.
“I pushed really hard. Quite happy to get to the finish, too.”
Chasing historic milestones
The dominant technician had already secured her ninth slalom globe earlier this year.
This latest triumph perfectly mirrors her own outstanding eight-win slalom campaign from the 2018-19 season.
Croatian great Janica Kostelic is the only other female skier to achieve that remarkable feat a quarter of a century ago.
The unstoppable record-breaker continues to rewrite alpine skiing history on a weekly basis.
She now boasts an astonishing 109 career World Cup victories, including 72 in her premier discipline.
American cross-country skier Jake Adicoff has made history at the Milan-Cortina Games by becoming the first out gay man to win an individual Winter Paralympic gold medal.
The 30-year-old secured his momentous milestone by triumphing in the men’s sprint classic on Tuesday.
He followed that success just 24 hours later by dominating the 10km classic interval start, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of the field.
With two victories already secured, the visually impaired athlete is halfway towards his ambitious target of four titles in Italy.
Paving the way for LGBTQ+ athletes
Adicoff is one of only a small number of openly gay competitors participating at these Winter Games.
The Idaho native highlighted the scarcity of LGBTQ+ representation at the elite levels of competition.
“The higher you get in sport, the less out people that you see,” Adicoff told Outsports.
“And I think going to the Paralympics, being a gay athlete there, showing that it’s possible to reach this upper echelon of sport as an out athlete and as a Para-athlete, that’s super important to me.”
Seizing a golden opportunity
The American has competed in four consecutive Paralympics, making his debut as a high school student at Sochi in 2014.
He briefly retired after taking silver behind Canadian legend Brian McKeever at Pyeongchang 2018, before returning to claim team relay gold and two more individual silvers at Beijing 2022.
Following the retirement of 16-time champion McKeever, the visually impaired division was left wide open for a new dominant force.
The Sun Valley skier seized his chance emphatically, stringing together World Cup and World Championship victories before arriving in Cortina.
Bolstered by family support
Unlike the restricted Beijing Games, athletes in Italy are competing in front of enthusiastic crowds of friends and family.
The champion’s supporters have made their presence felt at the Tesero Cross-Country Centre, waving giant cut-outs of his face alongside guides Reid Goble and Peter Wolter.
“To have so many people that came out and supported us and are going to continue to support us throughout the week… it’s so nice having friends and family here,” he said.
He will have another chance to celebrate with his entourage in Saturday’s 4×2.5km mixed relay before tackling the gruelling 20km event on Sunday.
German cross-country skiers Linn Kazmaier and Florian Baumann turned their backs on the Russian gold medallists during a Winter Paralympics podium ceremony on Tuesday to protest the nation’s readmission to the Games.
The gesture occurred during the women’s sprint classic vision impaired event after Anastasiia Bagiian and her guide Sergei Siniakin secured victory.
As the Russian national anthem played across the venue, the German silver medallists deliberately faced away from the flag.
Solidarity drives podium demonstration
Speaking to the German press, the visually impaired athlete revealed that the medal ceremony felt completely strange.
“That it is so totally overshadowed by politics is simply a complete shame,” Kazmaier said.
She explained the decision to leave their hats on and turn away was a deliberate choice to withhold support for the competing nation.
Baumann added that the silent demonstration was intended to show solidarity with Ukrainians, echoing similar interactions they shared during the Beijing Games four years ago.
“It’s not about the Russian athletes themselves, but the IPC’s decision to have Russia here under their flag, with their anthem and their full contingent in attendance, while the Ukrainians are also here, I find simply not correct,” stated the German guide.
The pair also reportedly refused to participate in the traditional medallists’ selfie following the ceremony.
Background to Paralympic reinstatement
Russian competitors are participating under their own flag at a Paralympics for the first time since 2014.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) officially lifted its suspension of the country in September.
The nation had previously faced extensive bans due to a state-sponsored doping scandal, which were subsequently extended following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A total of six Russian athletes and four from allied Belarus are currently competing at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics.
This controversial reinstatement previously prompted teams from seven countries, including Ukraine, to boycott Friday’s opening ceremony in Verona.
The IPC has confirmed to BBC Sport that it is aware of Tuesday’s podium protest and is currently gathering evidence on the matter.
Para-alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina has won Russia’s first Paralympic gold medal since 2014 by securing victory in the standing super G on Monday.
The 23-year-old crossed the finish line in one minute 15.6 seconds on the iconic Olimpia delle Tofane piste.
She finished almost two seconds clear of French silver medallist Aurelie Richard, while Sweden’s Ebba Aarsjoe claimed bronze.
This triumphant run comes just two days after the two-time world champion secured a standing downhill bronze to claim her nation’s first medal of the Games.
Russian flag returns to the podium
These Games mark the first appearance of the Russian flag at a Paralympics since the nation hosted the Sochi event 12 years ago.
Russia and its athletes were previously banned following a massive state-sponsored doping scandal.
Further sporting sanctions were subsequently imposed following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The national anthem will now be played during the victory ceremony once all daily Para-alpine events conclude.
Late clearance for competition
The newly crowned Paralympic champion and her team-mates only returned to international skiing competition this January.
This followed a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the international governing body, FIS.
FIS had initially refused to lift its ban on competitors from Russia and Belarus despite the International Paralympic Committee ending its own suspension last September.
The initial ban was implemented on the eve of the Winter Paralympics four years ago before being softened to allow neutral participation.
Competing at her debut Games, the lightning-fast skier still has four additional opportunities to secure further medals.
Lindsey Vonn has admitted she is set to lose her status as the world’s number one downhill skier following the leg injury that ended her Winter Olympic campaign.
The 41-year-old saw her hopes of claiming a medal in Milano-Cortina shattered last month when she sustained a severe leg fracture just 13 seconds into her downhill run.
Vonn was airlifted to hospital after screaming in agony on the piste, eventually requiring four operations in Italy before returning to the United States.
Painful acceptance for American star
In an emotional update to supporters, the American speed specialist acknowledged that her absence from competition means relinquishing the red leader bib.
“Well… I’ve had the red leader bib from the first race of the season until now, but in all likelihood tomorrow will be my last day as #1,” she said.
“At the beginning of the season, no one would have ever believed I would be even close to this position.”
“But winning the title was my goal… and I came painfully close to achieving it.”
An extraordinary comeback
Vonn had stunned the skiing world by returning to elite competition following a six-year retirement and a partial knee replacement.
Despite the premature end to her season, the Minnesota native recorded two victories and reached the podium in every downhill race she completed.
“I clawed my way back to #1 in the world after being retired for 6 years with a partial knee replacement and that alone was an incredible achievement I won’t ever forget,” she added.
“Even though in a few days no one will remember that I almost won the season title, I will remember.”
“I didn’t want to win the title to prove anything to anyone. I did it because I knew I could.”
Uncertainty over future
Vonn is now focusing on rehabilitation, though questions remain regarding whether she will ever compete professionally again.
She admitted that missing out on the title has been difficult to process because of her enduring love for the sport.
“My tears just mean I care. I always have. That’s why I work so hard. Skiing is my passion,” she said.
“Whether I’ll ever be able to do it again is…”