More records fell at the finale of an historic alpine season | CBC Sports

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One of the most memorable alpine skiing seasons ever came to a close yesterday at the World Cup finals in Andorra. Here are the key takeaways:

Mikaela Shiffrin capped her historic season by setting more records.

Having already broken the record for most career World Cup wins on March 11, the American star put the finishing touch on an incredible season by winning the closing women’s giant slalom on Sunday. Shiffrin’s 21st career giant slalom victory established a new women’s record for that discipline and boosted her career win total across all disciplines to 88. It also pushed Shiffrin’s World Cup earnings this season to $1.04 million US — the most in alpine history. 

Shiffrin’s 2022-23 season was one for the books. She racked up a World Cup tour-leading 14 wins in 31 starts and captured the season-long women’s slalom, giant slalom and overall championships (for the seventh, second and fifth time, respectively). She also won gold in the giant slalom at last month’s world championships, giving her seven world titles across four different disciplines. Shiffrin could hit the mythical 100-win plateau next season. And, having just turned 28 last week, there’s no reason to think she’ll stop there.

Marco Odermatt closed out a dominant men’s World Cup season.

The Swiss standout won his last race, Saturday’s giant slalom, to break Austrian great Hermann Maier’s 23-year-old men’s record for most World Cup points in a season. The victory was Odermatt’s 13th of the campaign, tying the men’s single-season record shared by Maier, Ingemar Stenmark and Marcel Hirscher.

The 25-year-old Odermatt, who won Olympic gold in the giant slalom last year, captured his second straight World Cup overall and giant slalom season titles and added the super-G crown. He also won gold in the downhill and the giant slalom at the world championships. Odermatt finished just behind Shiffrin in earnings this season with $1.017 million US.

Valérie Grenier added one more medal to a strong season for Canada.

Grenier’s bronze in the women’s giant slalom on Sunday was Canada’s only medal of the finals. But it brought the country’s World Cup season total to a respectable five podiums, including a giant slalom gold by Grenier back in January. Jack Crawford accounted for all three of Canada’s men’s World Cup medals, taking a pair of silver and a bronze in downhill races.

Canada also won a national-record four medals at the world championships last month, highlighted by Crawford’s gold in the men’s super-G and Laurence St. Germain’s gold in the women’s slalom. The latter was especially stunning as it came in Shiffrin’s best event.

Crawford wound up a Canadian-best 12th in the men’s World Cup overall standings while finishing fifth in the downhill and sixth in the giant slalom. Grenier placed 25th in the women’s overall chase and seventh in the giant slalom.