Lara Gut of Switzerland edged close to the overall alpine skiing world cup title on Saturday by placing fifth in a super-G won by Austria's Cornelia Huetter.
Gut built a 295-point lead in the standings over Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, who was 18th and all but conceded the season-long title.
"In the overall, it is more or less through," said Rebensburg, acknowledging she almost needs a miracle with only three races left in her season.
"Lara has so many points ahead and she is not making mistakes."
Gut can take a decisive lead with a top-25 finish in Sunday's combined event that Rebensburg will skip as she does not race slalom.
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Rebensburg plans to start only three of the four events, each worth 100 points to the winner, at world cup finals week starting on Wednesday at St. Moritz.
Still, the 24-year-old Swiss would not accept that a first career overall title is hers.
"No, I don't have it, I didn't win it," said Gut. "There is not enough points to say I won it. I'm just skiing races and trying to be fast every time."
Gut was 0.58 seconds behind Huetter's time on the 1.58-kilometre Silvano Beltrametti course.
Fabienne Suter of Switzerland was second, 0.10 back. Third-placed Tamara Tippler of Austria trailed Huetter by 0.35.
Gut's path to the giant crystal globe trophy opened up when four-time overall winner Lindsey Vonn suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago.
Vonn could still finish second in the overall rankings, currently 228 points ahead of third-placed Rebensburg, and can also retain her season-long super-G discipline title.
Gut missed the chance to overtake Vonn on Saturday but can do so with a top-10 finish in the last super-G scheduled on Thursday. Huetter is also in contention if she wins or places second in nearby St. Moritz.
