American skier Mikaela Shiffrin accomplished what she called “the big, big goal for me this season.”

But it wasn’t a record-tying 86th career victory.

Shiffrin on Saturday locked up her fifth overall World Cup title, widely regarded as ski racing’s biggest prize, by tying for fifth place in a downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway.

“That’s really amazing. That (overall title) was like the big, big goal for me this season,” Shiffrin said. “I had such a big focus on it that I was even talking about it in interviews in the beginning of the season. Normally I don’t talk about it so much because it takes a long time to figure out if you can do it.”

The American’s quest for another race win was extended by at least another day, as she was set to compete in a super-G today.

Shiffrin needs one victory to match Ingemar Stenmark‘s total on the all-time overall winners list — between men and women.

Saturday’s race was won by Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, who became the first Norwegian woman to win a downhill in the 56-year history of World Cup skiing.

Sofia Goggia finished 0.29 seconds behind in second as the Italian secured the season-long downhill title again.

Olympic champion Corinne Suter and two-time former world champion Ilka Stuhec placed third and fourth, respectively.

Shiffrin and Austrian skier Ramona Siebenhofer both finished 0.79 seconds behind Lie.

The result, however, was enough for Shiffrin to extend her lead in the overall standings to an insurmountable 796 points with seven races left. Her only competitor for the big crystal globe, two-time former overall champion Lara Gut-Behrami, finished 21st.

• Aleksander Aamodt Kilde earned his second consecutive World Cup downhill title by winning Saturday’s race in Aspen, Colo. by more than a half-second.

The Norwegian collected his sixth victory in nine downhills this season, allowing him to join Stephan Eberharter as the only male ski racers in the past 45 years with that many. Eberharter did it in 2001-02 and 2002-03; before that, the last man with at least six downhill triumphs in one season was Franz Klammer in 1977.

Skiing a tight line under a partly cloudy sky and brushing aside gates with his elbows, the two-time 2022 Beijing Olympic medalist Kilde completed the course in 1 minute, 31.6 seconds.

James Crawford of Canada was second to Kilde, 0.61 seconds back, with overall men’s World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland next, O.63 off Kilde’s pace.

Kilde and Odermatt are tied for the World Cup season lead with a total of eight race wins apiece.

Medvedev tops Rublev for crown in Dubai

Daniil Medvedev won his 18th tour-level title and third in a row by beating Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in an all-Russian final at the Dubai Championships.

The former No. 1 extended his winning streak to 14 matches in a run that started on Feb. 14 and included back-to-back trophies in Rotterdam and Doha.

Medvedev broke Rublev twice in each set and won the last five games on the hard court.

Rublev was the defending champion but quickly fell behind as he couldn’t hold his serve in the opening game.

Medvedev gave top-ranked Novak Djokovic his first defeat of the year in the semifinals.

Blue Jays’ Guerrero bows out of WBC

Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has withdrawn from playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic due to inflammation in his right knee.

Toronto manager John Schneider said that an MRI showed no structural damage in Guerrero’s right knee. Guerrero left the Blue Jays’ spring training game on Friday with discomfort in the knee after taking some awkward steps into second base following a hit.

He was scheduled to leave the Blue Jays to join the Dominican Republic team today.

The 23-year-old Guerrero hit .274 with 32 homers and 97 RBIs last season.

He is the third Blue Jays player to withdraw from the WBC, joining catcher Alejandro Kirk (Mexico) and relief pitcher Jordan Romano (Italy).

• Left-handed reliever Will Smith agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract with the Texas Rangers.

The 33-year-old was 0-3 with a 3.97 ERA and five saves in 65 relief appearances last year for Atlanta and Houston, which acquired him on Aug. 2 for current Ranger Jake Odorizzi. The Astros declined a $13 million option on Nov. 9, allowing Smith to become a free agent.

He was an All-Star with San Francisco in 2019, the final season with the Giants for current Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. Smith had a career-high 37 saves for Atlanta in 2021.

He has a 31-34 career record with 91 saves in 513 appearances over 10 seasons with five teams.

Decker retires from U.S. national team

Three-time Olympian Brianna Decker announced her retirement from the United States national women’s hockey team.

The forward from Wisconsin was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.

Decker, 31, also won Olympic silver medals in 2014 and 2022, along with six world championship titles.

Decker’s announcement comes 13 months after her last Olympic appearance ended abruptly when she broke her left fibula and tore ligaments in her ankle in a preliminary round-opening 5-2 win over Finland at the Beijing Games.

Decker finishes her national team career with 81 goals and 89 assists in 147 games.