American skier Mikaela Shiffrin set the record for most career World Cup wins with 87 by winning a slalom on Saturday.
Shiffrin broke a tie with Ingemar Stenmark for the all-time all-time wins among men and women. The Swedes competed in the 1970s and 80s.
The US Ski and Snowboard team tweeted about Shiffrin’s achievement on Saturday.
🚨🏆 Most decorated skier of all time 🏆🚨 @Mikelashifrin breaks Ingemar Stenmark’s record for most Alpine World Cup wins by any skier in history. Absolutely incredible. 🤯 #stifelusalpineteam // @stifel pic.twitter.com/QCd3NtcI5D
— US Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) March 11, 2023
Shiffrin matched Stenmark’s mark of 86 wins with a giant slalom victory Friday.
“Pretty hard to understand,” Shiffrin said of the record.
After finishing the final run, the American crouched and rested his head on his knees. Her crush, Taylor Shiffrin, then came out and hugged her during the winner’s ceremony.
“My brother and sister-in-law are here and I didn’t know they were coming, that makes it so special,” Shiffrin said.
Alessandro Trovati / AP
Saturday’s result marked the Americans’ sixth slalom win of the season and a career-high 53rd win in the discipline.
Shiffrin dominated the first run and posted the fifth-fastest second time, beating Swiss skier Wendy Holdener by 0.92 seconds.
Third place home favorite Anna Sven Larsson was the last racer to come within a second of Shiffrin’s time.
“The best feeling is to ski the second run when you definitely want to win, you have a lead so you have to be smart but also, I just wanted to be fast and ski the second run is its own race,” Shiffrin said.
“I did just that and it’s amazing.”
Shiffrin has already locked up her fifth overall championship and discipline titles in slalom and GS.
“It feels good to race today. After such an incredible day yesterday, I feel like there’s no pressure,” Shiffrin said after the opening run.
The win, the day after his first race at the World Cup as a 15-year-old at a GS in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, gave Shiffrin a 12-year outright record.
Shiffrin is set to compete in three more races this season, leading up to next week’s World Cup finals.
The race took place at a venue where many key moments in Shiffrin’s career took place. At the Swedish lakeside resort, she won her first World Cup in 2012 and won slalom gold at the 2019 World Championships, becoming the first skier to win four consecutive world titles in one discipline.
However, it was also where he suffered the knee injury that kept him off the slopes for two months during the 2015–16 season and where he was due to race again in March 2020 following the death of his father the previous month. , but those races were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.