Petra Vlhova won her first Alpine skiing World Cup overall title by placing sixth in the women's slalom at the World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
## What happened?
Vlhova needed to finish 15th or better to mathematically clinch over Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami with one race remaining, a giant slalom on Sunday.
She was overtaken in this season's final slalom standings by Austrian Katharina Liensberger, who won on Saturday by 1.24 seconds over Mikaela Shiffrin.
## Why it matters for Petra Vlhova
Vlhova's win makes her the first person from her nation to win ski racing’s biggest annual prize.
She last year supplanted Shiffrin as the world’s best slalom skier.
## What comes next?
The World Cup Finals finish Sunday, with a full TV and live stream schedule available.
And Vlhova will look to continue her success in future competitions.
But for now, she can celebrate her historic win, which came after a strong season.
So she will head into the next season with high expectations.
Vlhova began the World Cup Finals with a strong chance to win the overall title.
She had a good season, with several top finishes, including a win in the slalom.
Her win on Saturday was a testament to her hard work and dedication.
Liensberger, the 23-year-old gold medalist at last month’s world championships, denied Shiffrin a seventh slalom season title.
Shiffrin, who went 300 days between races in 2020, needed to finish higher than Liensberger to have a chance at the crystal globe.
Alexis Pinturault won a men’s giant slalom and clinched the overall on his 30th birthday.
Pinturault finished second or third in the overall standings on five previous occasions.
He began Saturday with 33 World Cup race victories, the most for any man yet to win an overall.
“I worked so hard for so many years,” he said.
Pinturault went into the World Cup Finals leading Swiss Marco Odermatt by 31 points.
After the downhill and super-G were canceled due to weather, he was in position to win the overall by finishing ahead of Odermatt in the GS.
Pinturault not only won the GS race, but he also claimed his first season title in that discipline after placing second or third the previous eight years, usually behind Marcel Hirscher, Ted Ligety or both.