Breezy Johnson finishes downhill season with World Cup Finals runner-up

Olympic gold medalist Breezy Johnson capped her Alpine skiing season by coming the closest she ever has to winning a World Cup race. Johnson finished runner-up in the World Cup Finals downhill to Italian Laura Pirovano in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Saturday. The deficit — 15 hundredths of a second — was the smallest of Johnson's 11 career World Cup podiums — all second- and third-place finishes.

Pirovano continued her post-Olympic dominance, winning a third consecutive downhill on the circuit. The 28-year-old came into the season with no World Cup podiums and ends it as the downhill season champion. ALPINE SKIING: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule The primary storyline of the World Cup Finals is the competition for the overall season title — the biggest annual prize in the sport.

Points are accumulated from every race over the October-to-March World Cup season. Mikaela Shiffrin, bidding for a female record-tying sixth career overall title, went into the last four races of the 37-race season with a 140-point lead on German Emma Aicher. The Finals feature one race in each discipline: Saturday's downhill, then Sunday's super-G, Tuesday's slalom and Wednesday's giant slalom.

Each race winner receives 100 points on a descending scale — 80 points for second place, 60 points for third, 50 for fourth, 45 for fifth and so on. Aicher, who races all four disciplines, had a chance Saturday to gain significantly on Shiffrin, who hasn't raced downhill this season. Aicher, who is second in the season downhill standings and the Olympic downhill silver medalist behind Johnson, finished fifth on Saturday.