American Mikaela Shiffrin, winner of an alpine ski women's World Cup slalom, poses with the trophy in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday. (AP photo)

SEMMERING, Austria (AP) — After dominating the first four World Cup slaloms this season, Mikaela Shiffrin has only just managed to keep her winning streak intact ahead of the 2026 Olympics.

Not that Sunday’s night slalom in Austria, the final event of the calendar year, could make the American ski star particularly happy.

Shiffrin came from half a second behind in the first run to edge out world champion Camille Rast of Switzerland, but then slammed race conditions on the Panorama course.

“I have to say this: It was not safe to ski for the girls,” Shiffrin told Austrian TV. “For me, don’t question it, bib 4 on the first run, it’s not a problem, right. But for these women who were starting bib 13, 15, 18, in the 60s (start numbers), this is not OK.”

The recent mild weather affected the course and organizers attempted to harden its surface by injecting water and salt beforehand.

However, the surface broke on an increasing number of spots during the afternoon run, which started at 2:15 p.m.

Conditions then slightly improved for the evening session 3½ hours later, when temperatures dropped.

“It was a very challenging and distracting day,” Shiffrin said. “My understanding is that there were no big injuries, but the way the surface was breaking … The second run was a bit better, for sure, but I am frustrated with how that went for these women.”

Only 40 out of the 77 starters completed the first session and a deficit of 5.94 seconds was still enough to qualify for the final run.

“It should be a good show, but it should be something that the athletes want to do and are not terrified on the start, looking at the first two turns with these enormous holes. There is a way to do it better, and that’s that,” Shiffrin said.

Doing it better is certainly what Shiffrin did in her final run.

The American was fourth, more than half a second off the pace, in the opening session on the rapidly deteriorating course, but posted the fastest time in the evening to beat first-run leader Rast, who finished 0.09 seconds behind. Italian-born prodigy Lara Colturi, 19, who competes for Albania, was 0.57 back in third.

“It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure’s on. And oh, I did my best, best possible run,” Shiffrin said in a course-side interview after her record-extending 106th career win.

“It didn’t feel like good. I didn’t expect to come down with the green light. It’s been one of those days, it’s like: ‘Let’s refocus and be positive and try’.”

Five wins in a row to begin a season matches Shiffrin’s personal best start from 2018-19.

She 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, before adding Sunday’s narrow win.

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