MIKAELA Shiffrin powered to her 13th World Cup victory of the season in Saturday’s slalom at Maribor, the final women’s race ahead of the world championships in Sweden next week.

On a clear and bright day with good skiing conditions she finished 0.77 seconds in front of Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson, with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland third.

Petra Vlhova has come closest to rivalling Shiffrin on the circuit so far this year but the Slovak came fifth, a full 1.7sec adrift over the two runs.

The American looks unstoppable this season, especially in good weather, and won her 56th career World Cup race largely thanks to a pulsating first run that no other skier in the field came remotely close to equalling.

The victory means the 23-year-old Shiffrin is just one World Cup win short of Vreni Schneider’s all-time record of 14 victories in a World Cup campaign.

“It’s always a big fight but it’s something I’m really proud of,” said Shiffrin. “This whole season my team has done a great job.”

Another record in the two-time defending Crystal Globe holder’s sights is the most points accumulated in a single season. Tina Maze holds the record with 2,414 points but Shiffrin is closing in with 1,694 and a possible 11 races remaining.

Her strongest discipline, the slalom, has earned her six wins since the November 17 opening weekend, but there have also been three Super-G and three giant slalom triumphs and one parallel slalom win.