Tina Maze secures overall skiing World Cup title

Tina Maze sealed her near-perfect Alpine skiing season with the overall World Cup title when she won a women’s super-combined event yesterday.

Fastest in the morning downhill section, the Slovenian secured her position in the afternoon slalom to bag her ninth victory of the season in an aggregate time of one minute 59.54 seconds. While Austrians Nicole Hosp and Michaela Kirchgasser were second and third, 0.82 and 0.90 behind respectively, all eyes were on Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch, the only skier still able to delay Maze’s official crowning.

With nine World Cup races left until the end of the season, Maze leads Hoefl-Riesch by 958 points and can no longer be caught as each victory earns 100 points.

With 1,844 points, the Slovenian is expected to become the first woman to break the 2,000-points barrier and could do so as early as next week in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with three races scheduled in the German resort.