Mikaela Shiffrin powered through goggle-sticking sleet, massive ruts and a ridiculously turny top section in Bormio, Italy to win her record-tying sixth World Cup slalom race at the age of 18.

Shiffrin handled a brutal eight-gate section in the steeps that got the best of some of the best skiers in the world, then ripped through the flats to win her second race of the season. The win puts Shiffrin back on top of the World Cup slalom standings with the Olympics in Sochi just a month away.

Last season Mikaela Shiffrin became the youngest skier ever to win both the world championships and the World Cup globe in slalom. This season she won the season opener in Finland but dropped off a notch, finishing as low as 12th in Courchevel before regaining her form in Italy. She has also reached the podium twice in giant slalom, and is a top-five contender for the overall World Cup title, even without competing in the speed events of downhill and Super G.

Fellow American skier Lindsey Vonn has won the world Cup overall title four times, but she has been struggling with a knee injury this season and just announced today that she will not compete in the Olympics.

Vonn’s announcement will put even more pressure on Shiffrin in Sochi as the media circus revs up. But the teenager seems immune to pressure so far, skiing with grace in all conditions and against all competition. Her victory in Italy tied her with Kristina Koznik for the most World Cup slalom victories by an American woman.

Maria Pietelae-Homnr of Sweden finished second in Bormio, and Natasia Noens of France took third. German Maria Hoefl-Riesch

Olympic champion and overall World Cup leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany did not finish after struggling with a brutal hairpin over the first steep that Shiffrin handled with apparent ease.

Shiffrin makes slalom look easy in all conditions, and she has been training hard to gain strength. It is hard to believe that she just graduated from high school last spring. She attended the Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont and now lives in Vail, but like all top American racers, she has done her share of gate training on Mount Hood in summer. Here is a YouTube video of her freeskiing on Mount Hood.

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And here’s a video that shows Shiffrin’s grace in the gates at full speed.

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Last modified: January 6, 2014