News agency2 minutes to read
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Sweden — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her 86th World Cup race on Friday by winning the giant slalom.
Shiffrin’s win equaled the overall record set by the great Swede Ingmar Stenmark 34 years earlier.
The 27-year-old American maintained her half-second lead into the first half and finished 0.64 seconds ahead of Federica Brignone.
Shiffrin crossed the finish line, placing her hands on her helmet, then on her face, and slowly nodding her head as she realized the magnitude of her achievement.
“This is just an amazing day. Oh my God,” she said in a course-side interview.
Stenmark told the Associated Press last month that Shiffrin was “a lot better than I was” and that he thought she could win more than 100 races.
It took Shiffrin 11 years, 11 months, and 27 days after her first highest-level race on March 11, 2011, to get the record. It took Stenmark 15 years, two months and 11 days between his World Cup debut in December 1973 and his final victory in February 1989.
According to official statistics, Stenmark has 230 World Cup victories, while Shiffrin has 245. However, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s database lacks information from some Stenmark-era events because skaters who have competed have raced and failed. To score World Cup points are not scored.
Friday was Shiffrin’s fourth consecutive World Cup giant slalom win since January. At that time, she also took home the gold medal at the World Championships last month in Meribel, France.
Starting cautiously on her second run under the floodlights on a rapidly darkening afternoon, Shiffrin let her half-time lead of 1.04 seconds over Brignone before gaining time in the bottom half.
Brignone made a theatrical bow towards Shiffrin on a postrace in the end zone.
Swedish Olympic champion Sarah Hector was third, 0.92 seconds behind Shiffrin.
Shiffrin also won the Giant Slalom World Cup title over the course of the season, securing her 15th career title. She has already won her fifth World Cup finals and slalom title this season.
Making more World Cup history on Friday, Shiffrin’s 20th giant slalom career win—six of them this season—matched the all-time women’s mark set by Vrene Schneider.
Schneider had her win run between 1984 and 1992. The Swiss competitor, like Shiffrin, also won Olympic and World Championship gold medals in both giant slalom and slalom.
Shiffrin won her first VR World Cup race, a slalom in December 2012, and then took home two gold medals at the 2019 worlds at the Swedish resort. She was also scheduled to race in March 2020 following the death of her father the previous month, but the races were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve had a few different experiences here,” Shiffrin said after her first ride on Friday. “I’ve felt everything you feel here, so it’s great to be back.”
“Typical food guru. Problem solver. Devoted beer practitioner. Professional reader. Baconaholic.”