Croatian Janica Kostelic, who earned a record-breaking four Olympic medals in Salt Lake City, won the last slalom race of the season by more than a half-second Sunday. Laure Pequegnot of France, whose first World Cup win came at Copper Mountain in November, clinched the World Cup overall slalom title.

Kostelic had the fastest second run. First-run leader Christel Pascal-Saioni, the last racer of the season, made several mistakes, and ceded the win to Kostelic, who finished in 1:54.66. Swedes completed the podium with Anja Paerson 2nd in 1:55.23 and Ylva Nowen 3rd in 1:55.38.

Kristina Koznick (Burnsville, MN) struggled on both runs and was 13th in this slalom, but took 2nd overall, followed by Anja Paerson, who, despite four World Cup wins early in the season, was 3rd in overall slalom points.

Koznick had a two-run time of 1:56.73 and teammate Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO), with the fourth-fastest second run, was 18th with a time of 1:57.10.

It's the second time Koznick, who won in Berchestgaden and also had three 2nd-place finishes, has also been 2nd in overall slalom. The first was during the 1998 season when she won her first two World Cup races and never finished below 6th for the reaminder of the season.

"It's tough when you're not skiing well," Koznick said. "I've been faster than anyone all year long and everyone knows it. But it's all about putting it together on race day. I'm just disappointed today that I didn't put two good runs together.

"Still it was a good season and I have a lot to look forward to. When I was second a few years ago I didn't really know why, I was just smiling and happy," she said. "It was different this year getting second and not skiing my best. I really need to test myself more and just let it go. I have to really just let it go on race day."

Schleper said, "I'm really happy with my second run. I just skied more aggressively and attacked the course. I starting linking my turns together rather than just skiing gate by gate."

Koznick and Schleper complete their season at the Chevy Truck U.S. Alpine Championships March 14-19 at California's Squaw Valley and Sugar Bowl resorts. Schleper is the defending slalom champion.

— Courtesy US Ski Team