Goetschl prepares to chase Paerson down Finnish slope

Mission impossible for Renate Goetschl?

The Austrian ski star has traveled all the way to northern Finland hoping to improve her dismal slalom record as she chases Sweden's Anja Paerson down the stretch for the World Cup overall title.

Going into the first of two weekend slaloms on Saturday at Levi, a ski resort north of the Arctic Circle and a new stop on the women's World Cup circuit, Goetschl trails Paerson by 123 points in the overall standings.

Goetschl began her racing career as a slalom skier, and won a race in that discipline in only her second World Cup in 1993. But this season, she has scored points in only one of her four slalom races. The rest have come in her favored speed events.

With seven points, Goetschl is tied for 44th of 49 skiers in the slalom standings.

So it's advantage Paerson, who has won six World Cup slaloms this winter and finished runner-up in the other.

After this weekend, only one race in each discipline remains. They are a slalom and giant slalom, Paerson's favorites, and downhill and super-G, Goetschl's favorites.

With 10 wins this season -- six in slalom and four in the GS -- Paerson could tie Swiss great Vreni Schneider's season-record of 14 wins if she wins all four remaining gate races.

Paerson, a 22-year-old from Tarnaby in northern Sweden near the Arctic Circle, is favored to join Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg as the third Swedish racer to win the overall title.

Stenmark, who also hails from Tarnaby, is history's greatest men's gate skier.