MIkaela Shiffrin paused for a moment, touched her blue helmet and then accepted the congratulations of her competitors for a historic achievement: The alpine star from the USA equaled the legendary record of 86 World Cup victories set by Swede Ingemar Stenmark. The 27-year-old won the giant slalom in Are, Sweden on Friday and was cheered on by the spectators in the finish area. “It’s a spectacular day,” she said afterwards. Already this Saturday (10.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. on ZDF and Eurosport) Shiffrin can become the sole record holder with a victory in the slalom.
The two-time Olympic champion had already laid the foundation for success with the fastest first run, with which she also secured the small crystal globe for the giant slalom classification after the overall and the slalom World Cup. After two runs, Shiffrin was 0.64 seconds ahead of Federica Brignone of Italy. Sweden’s Sara Hector was third (+0.92). The only German starter, Lena Dürr from Germering, was 32nd in the first run and missed the second run.
“She’s a lot better than I was”
Shiffrin’s famous record season continues uninterrupted. First, the exceptional athlete broke the record of her former opponent and compatriot Lindsey Vonn and became the first woman to win 83 World Cups. Then, with her 14th World Championships medal, she rose to become the most successful ski racer at World Championships in the post-war period. So now it’s Stenmark’s turn.
The Swedish slalom legend had raved about the alpine high-flyer before Shiffrin’s victory in Are. “She’s a lot better than I was. She has good physical strength, she has good technique, a strong head. And I’m also impressed that she’s doing so well in both slalom, super-G and downhill. I could never have been so strong in all these disciplines,” Stenmark praised the woman from Colorado.
Stenmark achieved all 86 victories in the technical disciplines slalom (40) and giant slalom (46) in the 1970s and 80s. Before her success in Are, Shiffrin was also at the top mainly in the slalom (52), but also won in the giant slalom (20) or parallel (5), in the Super-G (5) and in the downhill (3) as well as in the combination ( 1).
And what comes next? “I think she can win more than 100 (races),” said Stenmark. Shiffrin, on the other hand, doesn’t like to talk about records. “Maybe we can finally stop. I only know because you always draw my attention to it,” said the American. But as long as the magical winter sports limits of the former biathlete Ole Einar Björndalen (95 World Cup individual victories) or the cross-country skier Marit Björgen (114) are not reached, Shiffrin will have to continue to face the record questions.