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Mikaela Shiffrin sparkles with St. Moritz clean sweep

(CNN) She's already stamping her authority on the season and it's only December as Mikaela Shiffrin clinched a clean sweep in St.Moritz last weekend.

The American triumphed in Saturday's super-G and added victory in Sunday's parallel slalom to take her season tally to five wins.

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The 23-year-old has now won 48 World Cup races on skiing's elite circuit to move into fourth place on the all-time list behind Lindsey Vonn (82), Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Vreni Schneider (55).

The Olympic giant slalom champion has clinched three wins in eight days following last Sunday's super-G success in Lake Louise, Canada.

The American skier now has more than twice as many points in the World Cup overall standings as second-place Michelle Gisin of Switzerland as she chases a third straight season overall crown.

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In St. Moritz she beat Swiss Lara Gut-Behramhi by 0.28 seconds and came from behind halfway down the final run to edge Slovakia's Petra Vlhova by 0.11 seconds in the parallel slalom, in which racers compete head-to-head on adjacent courses.

"I saw the look in her eyes before the final at the start and I was thinking, 'oh, she really wants to beat me, OK, I really have to bring my intensity higher now,'" she told reporters in Switzerland.

"[Parallel slalom] is totally different to other events, I'm really fighting, really pushing. It was a little bit too much and I had some mistakes and I could see her next to me just ahead going faster and faster and I thought, 'Oh no, you're giving it away.'

"But it's such a cool event and it's not over until the finish. You have to be pushing so hard and that's what makes it exciting."

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The next stop on the women's World Cup circuit is at Val Gardena, Italy with a downhill and super-G on December 18 and 19 December respectively.

Shiffrin is also bidding for a fourth straight slalom world title at February's World Championships in Are, Sweden.

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