Shiffrin's winning streak in danger as Swiss skier Rast leads World Cup slalom after 1st run

SEMMERING, Austria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin was fourth and more than half a second off the pace in the opening run of a women’s World Cup slalom Sunday, putting the American’s five-race winning streak in the discipline in danger.

Shiffrin posted the fastest second split time and was one-hundredth ahead of world champion Camille Rast halfway down the Panorama course but lost considerable time on the Swiss racer in the bottom section and finished 0.54 seconds behind.

Rast led Italian-born prodigy Lara Colturi, who competes for Albania and was 0.09 seconds back in second, and Austria's Katharina Liensberger, who trailed by 0.34.

“It’s a pretty tough one. I think, probably, a little bit like overskiing, too round, compared to what’s possible," Shiffrin told Austrian TV, adding she planned to analyze video footage of her own and Rast’s run before the final leg later Sunday.

"Imagine like Camille, she is so direct on the gates, if she manages that, what must be, then it's so quick, so fast, so down the hill,” the American said.

Shiffrin won the final race of last season and then dominated the first four slaloms of the current Olympic campaign, winning them by an average margin of 1.5 seconds.

Shiffrin, who was the 2014 Olympic champion and holds the women’s World Cup record of 68 slalom wins, has won the slalom in Semmering three times, most recently in 2022 after she had won back-to-back giant slaloms in two days in the resort near Austrian capital Vienna.

Shiffrin led second-placed Colturi by 180 points in the slalom standings coming into Sunday’s race. The World Cup schedule includes three more slaloms in January before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and then two in March.

Zrinka Ljutic, who won the slalom globe last season, was 10th after the opening run and the Croatian racer had to make up 2.13 seconds in the final run.

Shiffrin's teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.41 off the lead, a day after she crashed and fell on her back and head in a giant slalom on the same hill. That race was won by Austria's Julia Scheib, who does not compete in slalom.

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

Albania's Lara Colturi speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

Switzerland's Camille Rast speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

A powerful winter storm was sweeping east from the Plains on Sunday, driven by what meteorologists describe as an intense cyclone, setting off a chain reaction of snow, ice, rain and severe weather expected to affect much of the country.

Snow and strengthening winds spread across the Upper Midwest on Sunday, where the National Weather Service warned of whiteout conditions and possible blizzard conditions that could make travel impossible in some areas. Snowfall totals were expected to exceed a foot across parts of the upper Great Lakes, with up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) possible along the south shore of Lake Superior.

In the South, meteorologists warn of severe thunderstorms expected to signal the arrival of a sharp cold front — sometimes referred to as a “Blue Norther” — bringing a sudden temperature drop and strong north winds that will end days of record warmth across the region.

Over the next 48 hours, the cyclone is expected to produce heavy snow and blizzard conditions in the Midwest and Great Lakes, freezing rain in New England, thunderstorms across the eastern U.S. and South, and widespread strong winds.

The storm is expected to intensify as it moves east, drawing energy from a sharp clash between frigid air plunging south from Canada and unusually warm air that has lingered across the southern United States, according to the National Weather Service.

It follows thousands of flight delays and cancellations across the Northeast and Great Lakes regions earlier this weekend due to snow, as thousands took to the roads and airports during the busy travel period between Christmas and New Year’s.

On the other side of the country, California was experiencing a fairly dry weekend after powerful storms battered the state with heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides. At least four people were killed including a man who was found dead Friday in a partially submerged car near Lancaster, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

FILE - An American Airlines plane arrives at the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)