KVITFJELL, Norway -- Until the beginning of March, Laura Pirovano had never been on a World Cup podium in 124 races.
On Saturday, the Italian skier earned her third downhill victory and secured the discipline title, a prize Lindsey Vonn was the favorite to win until she was injured at the Olympics.
"It's not possible. It's crazy," the 28-year-old Pirovano said. "I have a lot of emotion. I still can't understand everything. I am just beyond happy."
Pirovano's only remaining challenger for the title, Emma Aicher, finished fifth, as the German skier reduced the gap to Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall standings to 95 points with three races remaining.
Shiffrin has not raced in downhill since her crash in a World Cup race on the Olympic course in Cortina d'Ampezzo in January 2024. The American was expected to start in Sunday's super-G.
Pirovano completed her stunning downhill season by denying Olympic and world downhill champion Breezy Johnson what would have been the American's first World Cup triumph.
Pirovano beat Johnson by 0.15 seconds, with Aicher's German teammate Kira Weidle-Winkelmann finishing 0.25 behind in third.
"I knew the race would have been really difficult, so I felt honestly not so good," Pirovano said in a courseside interview. "I was afraid to watch the times when I crossed the finish line, and I was so surprised to see the green light. Everything is still unbelievable."
Pirovano had racked up four fourth places but never better until her back-to-back wins, both by the smallest margin of one-hundredth of a second, on home snow in Val di Fassa two weeks ago.
She said she had no explanation for her sudden and repeated success this month.
"I don't know, truly. Skiing the other races of the season, the feeling was the same. I don't know what's happening, honestly," she said.
Those results saw her overtake Vonn in the discipline standings.
In her second year back after her initial retirement in 2019, the 41-year-old Vonn dominated the first half of the season with two wins and three more podiums from the first five downhills.
Taking a commanding lead in the downhill standings and positioning herself for what would be a record-equaling ninth discipline title, Vonn wasn't able to add to her season tally in the final four races of the season.
She crashed and tore her left ACL in the last downhill before the Milan Cortina Games -- a race that was then canceled -- before badly damaging her left leg in a frightening crash in the Olympic downhill a week later, leaving her future in the sport undecided.
On Saturday, the women used the same course as the men for their downhill but started lower down the mountain, reducing run times by around 15 seconds.
Dominik Paris won the men's race as Italy opened the World Cup finals with two victories.
