18-year-old Carla Mijares achieves Andorra's best-ever women's World Cup result and top slalom finish ever,

Andorran skier Carla Mijares claimed a historic 18th place in the women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, marking the country's best-ever result in a women's event and the top national performance in slalom overall.

The 18-year-old, starting with bib 52 in her fifth World Cup slalom, recorded a combined time of 1:55.29, 6.47 seconds behind winner Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States (1:48.82). Shiffrin finished ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast, second at 0.09 back, and Albania's Lara Colturi, third at 0.57 back.

Mijares sat 24th after the first run with 59.39 (+4.69 off Rast's leading 54.70) on a demanding night course plagued by tough conditions and wide gaps. She lost just 0.98 seconds in the opening sector before conceding over a second in later splits, securing her first-ever second-run qualification.

Her second run began with a short delay for gate repairs. After an early minor deviation, she held under two seconds back through all splits, dropping only 0.05 in the final sector. Her 55.90 was the provisional fastest of the run and the 17th-best partial time (+2.32 off Shiffrin), gaining her six places to 18th.

The finish earned Mijares her first 13 World Cup points and 38th in the slalom standings. It surpasses Vicky Grau's 19th in Park City in 1998—27 years ago—and Mireia Gutiérrez's 20th in Zagreb in 2015.

Post-race, Mijares expressed elation at the breakthrough. She had entered focused on error-free skiing amid the challenging setup. "I'm very happy because from the morning I knew what I wanted to do. I was determined, and seeing it was a day to avoid mistakes and stay present, that's what I went for," she said. On the first run, she added: "It was tricky, but I knew I had to stay on top of my skis the whole time, and we managed it." Despite nerves in her debut second run with shifting snow and course changes, "I didn't shrink from it—I went out with grit and got the result." She also noted the effort behind it: "We've suffered many days to get here, we've fought, and this represents all those days we've kept pushing."