Mikaela Shiffrin breaks Alpine skiing record for World Cup victories
DENVER (KDVR) – American skier Mikaela Shiffrin earned her 87th World Cup win on Saturday, surpassing the previous record of 86 career World Cup wins set by Swedish athlete Ingemar Stenmark. Shiffrin, 27, had tied Stenmark's record on Friday during what has been an already historic season. Earlier this year, she tied and then broke the women’s record of 82 World Cup victories before gaining ground on the all-time record and ultimately besting it on Saturday during a slalom event in Åre, Sweden.
Shiffrin's first appearance on a FIS World Cup podium came in 2011 when she finished third in the slalom at Lienz, Austria. Less than a year later, in December 2012, she was on top of the podium for the first time after winning the slalom, also in Åre. That makes this win all the more special. Her 86th and 87th victories came at the same mountain where she claimed her first.
Slalom, which accounted for 52 of her 86 wins going into Saturday, has been Shiffrin's most successful discipline, but she also has 20 wins in giant slalom, five in parallel, five in super-G, three in downhill and one victory in combined.
These wins coming in Sweden is even more notable as she ties Stenmark's record in his home country. “She’s much better than I was. You cannot compare,” Stenmark said in an interview with the Associated Press last month. “She has everything. She has good physical strength, she has a good technique, strong head. I think it’s the combination of everything makes her so good. And I’m also impressed that she can ski good both in slalom and in super-G and downhill also."
Shiffrin shows just as much reverence for Stenmark as he does for her. “I would say the name means more than the number,” the Colorado-born athlete said of Stenmark. “He’s an absolute legend in skiing. And no matter what I achieve, this kind of term, ‘the greatest of all time’ or the numbers — all that for me, it’s something that’s debatable."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.