US ski star Shiffrin wins 2nd straight World Cup slalom of Olympic season

GURGL, Austria (AP) — American ski star Mikaela Shiffrin is heading into her home races in Colorado next weekend as the overall World Cup leader on a two-event winning streak.

Shiffrin dominated another slalom Sunday as she made it two convincing wins from two races in the discipline to start the Olympic season.

Racing in sunny but cold conditions in the Austrian Alps, Shiffrin posted the fastest time in both runs to finish 1.23 seconds ahead of second-placed Lara Colturi, an Italian prodigy competing for Albania.

The pair also went 1-2 in the first slalom of the season a week ago in Finland, where Shiffrin also led both runs and won by 1.66.

“I think it’s some of the best slalom skiing I ever did,” said Shiffrin, who got her 66th World Cup win in slalom and 103rd overall, both are records.

Slalom world champion Camille Rast trailed by 1.41 in third, as the podium resembled the one from last year’s race in Gurgl. Her Swiss teammate Wendy Holdener dropped to fourth.

Shiffrin's next races are a giant slalom on Saturday and a slalom the following day in Copper Mountain, the regular training base of the U.S. ski team.

The women’s races follow two men’s events in Copper Mountain on Thursday and Friday.

“I am really excited to go to Copper. I mean, I stay in my own bed for the first time during the season since we used to go to Aspen,” Shiffrin said.

On Sunday, Shiffrin led Colturi by 0.31 after a tight opening run, but used an all-attacking final leg to make the gap four times as big.

“I had to push so hard, but it was really nice with the sun on the second run,” Shiffrin said. “It was pretty much how I expected it, not easy, but I knew the others were pushing, so I had no choice. You have to go.”

Shiffrin and Colturi now rank 1-2 in both the slalom and overall standings after three events. Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan stood third after she finished Sunday’s race in fifth place.

Moltzan was second and Shiffrin fourth in the season-opening giant slalom in October, which was won by Austrian skier Julia Scheib.

Shiffrin also won the season’s first two slaloms in Levi and Gurgl last year, but then had a frightening crash in a GS when chasing career win 100 in Killington, Vermont in November.

She returned two months later and won two more slaloms, but announced before the current season she planned to reduce her schedule to slalom and GS, and maybe super-G, heading into the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February.

“I was so focused on giant slalom over the prep period, trying to get my level back to something worthy in GS races. So, I didn't get a lot of slalom training, but I got good slalom training," said Shiffrin, who won Olympic gold in slalom in 2014 and in GS four years later.

With 2022 Olympic champion Petra Vlhova still recovering from the lingering knee injury she sustained in January 2024, Colturi has developed into Shiffrin’s main rival in slalom.

“It’s just amazing to come back here to the podium,” Colturi said. ”I was feeling not that good during my runs because this kind of conditions for me are not the best things.”

Born in Italy, Colturi was 16 when she made her World Cup debut for Albania three years ago. She won the junior world title in super-G in January 2023, but had her rise halted after tearing the ACL in her right knee in a training crash the following month.

Colturi got her first career podium in Gurgl last year and went on to earn three more top-three results to finish eighth in the overall standings, before adding two second places this month.

“She is just amazing,” Colturi said about Shiffrin. “Our goals, from me and all the others, is just to ski like her, to be perfect like her. But it's really difficult.”

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin crosses the finish line to win an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, celebrates with second-placed Albania's Lara Colturi, left, and third-placed Switzerland's Camille Rast, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

Switzerland's Wendy Holdener competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Maria Pizzato)

Albania's Lara Colturi competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Maria Pizzato)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Gurgl, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

HONOLULU (AP) — Brooks Koepka becomes the first LIV Golf player to return to the PGA Tour under a one-time program for elite players.

It's not a free pass back to the PGA Tour. Koepka has to make a $5 million charitable donation. He won't be able to receive PGA Tour equity grants for five years. He isn't eligible for FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026. And he can't receive sponsor exemptions into the $20 million signature events.

He plans to return in the Farmers Insurance Open on Jan. 29 at Torrey Pines in San Diego. He is eligible to reach the lucrative FedEx Cup postseason. He also is eligible for the Presidents Cup and for the indoor TGL circuit in Florida.

But the CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises, Brian Rolapp, said this was not a precedent and that only three other LIV Golf players were eligible to return.

Here's a rundown on Koepka's return and what it means for other players and the rest of golf.

The PGA Tour board developed a “Returning Member Program” that applies to players who have won majors or The Players Championship since 2022 and have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years. Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, one year after he defected to LIV Golf for what Koepka had said was a deal worth at least $100 million. Koepka had one year left on his LIV contract when he and the Saudi-backed group agreed to an amicable split. Koepka is exempt through 2028 because of his PGA Championship win.

That depends. The out-of-pocket expense is the $5 million donation to charity, which the tour will help decide. By not having access to equity grants, the tour estimates that could deprive him up to $63 million. That's based on Koepka averaging a top-30 finish the next five years, a 10-12% equity appreciation and Koepka holding his shares until age 50.

He also cannot get FedEx Cup bonus money from the $20 million pool distributed to the top 10 players after the regular season, and $23 million awarded to 50 players after the BMW Championship. But the Tour Championship is now official money, and that $40 million purse counts as official. Tommy Fleetwood earned $10 million in official money from winning the Tour Championship last year.

Bryson DeChambeau won the 2024 U.S. Open. Jon Rahm wont he 2023 Masters. Cameron Smith won the British Open and The Players Championship in 2022. They are the only other players who can return to the PGA Tour. They have until Feb. 2 to accept. That's two days before LIV Golf begins a fifth season in Saudi Arabia.

The PGA Tour did not clarify why it chose the 2022-25 window. LIV Golf began in 2022. But that rules out major champions Phil Mickelson (2021 PGA Championship), Dustin Johnson (2020 Masters), Patrick Reed (2018 Masters) and Sergio Garcia (2017 Masters).

Also ineligible to return are Joaquin Niemann, a seven-time winner on LIV Golf, and Tyrrell Hatton, who has played on the last three Ryder Cup teams for Europe.

None of those players has expressed any desire to leave LIV.

No. Rolapp described Koepka as a unique situation and made clear this would not be a precedent, rather a one-time program that applies only to elite champions. He also said there were no guarantees such a pathway would be available in the future.

Koepka is eligible for the four majors and The Players Championship (through his PGA Championship win), along with any full-field event on the schedule. He would have to qualify for the $20 million signature events through winning a tour event or through the two performance-based pathways, such as being among top 10 in the FedEx Cup not already eligible. But he cannot get a sponsor exemption to the signature events. He also is eligible for the FedEx Cup postseason if he qualifies.

If Koepka gets into a signature event, or if he qualifies for the postseason, the PGA Tour would add him to the field and take whoever would have been next in line. For example, he finishes among the top 70 to qualify for the postseason, the tour would take No. 71 in the FedEx Cup standings.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

FILE - Brooks Koepka laughs while talking with Justin Thomas, left, on the 15th fairway during a practice round at the Masters golf tournament, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

FILE - Brooks Koepka tees off on the 15th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)