Jan 25 (Reuters) - U.S. ski great Mikaela Shiffrin took the women's World Cup slalom crystal globe for a record ninth time after winning in the Czech resort of Spindleruv Mlyn on Sunday.
The victory, in her last race before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, was the record-extending 108th of her World Cup career and 71st in slalom.
Shiffrin is the first skier, male or female, to win nine World Cup titles in a single discipline. American Lindsey Vonn won eight in downhill and Austrian Marcel Hirscher eight overall globes.
Shiffrin was 1.26 seconds quicker than Switzerland's Wendy Holdener after the first run and was also quickest in the second leg to win by a huge margin of 1.67 seconds.
Switzerland's Camille Rast was second and Germany's Emma Aicher third with Holdener dropping to fifth.
Shiffrin, the clear gold-medal favourite in the discipline, has won seven of the eight slaloms this season and finished second in the other.
She now has an unassailable tally of 780 points with world champion Rast 288 behind and two slaloms remaining after the Games.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)
