The battle for the season championship turned into a three-way contest between defending discipline champion Petra Vlhová from Slovakia, six-time discipline champion Mikaela Shiffrin from the US, and Austrian newcomer Katharina Liensberger, who (at 23) was only two years younger than her established rivals. Going into the finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, after wins by Vlhová and Liensberger in back-to-back slaloms in Åre, Sweden, Vhlová had a 22-point lead on Liensberger and a 37-point lead on Shiffrin, with everyone else at least 180 points behind.[2] However, in the season final, Liensberger posted the fastest time in both heats to defeat Shiffrin, who finished second, and win both the race and the season championship for the discipline.[3] Liensberger thus became the first Austrian woman to win this discipline since Marlies Schild in 2011.[4]