In Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Shiffrin equaled her 82nd career World Cup victory
82 down, one more.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s ascent to all-time greatness reached its penultimate rung Sunday morning, Jan. 8, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, as the American won her 82nd career World Cup race, tying Lindsey Vonn for the most number of alpine women. skier. The 27-year-old swept the Podkoren 3 run in a two-run time of 1 minute 52.53 seconds – setting the fastest time in both runs – to win her eighth race of the season. Federica Brignone took second place (1:53.30), and Lara Gut-Behrami came third (1:53.50).
“I hope one day I can ski like that again, because it was maybe the best skiing I’ve ever done in giant slalom,” Shiffrin told FIS later.
Edwards’ 232 World Cup starts equaled Vonn’s, winning 51 slaloms – a discipline record – 17 giant slaloms, five super-Gs, three downhill and one alpine combined. Vonn, who retired on February 10, 2019 at the age of 34 after winning a bronze medal at the world championships, accumulated her victories as follows: 43 in downhill, 28 in super-G, four in giant slalom, two in slalom and five in alpine combined in 395 starts. Ingemar Stenmark holds the all-time record in the Alps with 86 victories.
For Brignone, it was her 50th career podium, which is a feat in itself. Given the Italian’s legacy, Shiffrin’s 82 wins seem even more astounding.
“It was the first goal of my season,” Brignone said of the half-century milestone.
“I’m very happy to have her now and she’s definitely a number two compared to Mikaela, but she’s great for me. When I started my career, I never thought that I would stand on the podium 50 times.”
After gaining the lead in the first run, Shiffrin said she was “so nervous in the second run.”
“And I don’t know exactly why, because I said I don’t care about the number and just focus on skiing, but I was more nervous than ever,” she admitted.
“Maybe a little because of 82. I really wanted to ski well and I did.”
Despite the accolade, there seemed to be no fear of Shiffrin skiing the 320-foot, 40-gate hill in both runs. Her sector placings in the icy first run were first, second, first and fifth, en route to a 0.24 second advantage over Brignone, who was fourth yesterday. Yesterday’s champion, Valerie Grenier of Canada, landed in third place, 0.39 seconds behind.
“I couldn’t have skied any faster,” Shiffrin told The Associated Press after her first run. “In this first run I felt much, much better than yesterday. I had to try to change my feeling from yesterday. It was very good skiing and I am happy with that.”
In the second run, Shiffrin pulled the screws, also with nerves.
“Every time I feel more nervous, like when I’m skiing hard and I can’t feel my legs, and every time I feel that, I try to be stronger, like I kind of push harder instead of being too kind to the track. I felt really smooth and really strong,” she said.
The 27-year-old increased her lead in the first sector, climbed to the fastest sectors two and three – gaining 0.23 seconds in the latter alone – and cruised to a monumental and dominant (she won by 0.77 seconds) victory.
“It was a struggle,” Shiffrin continued. “But it was pretty incredible conditions and I got a report from the coaches saying, ‘It’s really attacking, so go for it.’ I was already in this position and I gave it up, but today I wanted to fight for it.”
When Gut-Behrami was asked how she felt about sharing the podium with Mikaela and how she felt about the Edwards skier getting so emotional about the number — especially after she herself said the numbers don’t matter –, she said: “Well, I think it’s great. It’s a sport… I guess it happens. It’s good to have these athletes making history; without it, without emotions, we would not be so addicted to sports.”
Shiffrin is also closing in on a new record, though less important than the all-time record. With her 17th giant slalom victory, she passed France’s Moser-Pröll and Tessa Worley, good for second on the women’s career list, behind only Vrena Schneider, who won 20.
The Women’s World Cup will continue on Tuesday with the slalom in Flachau. Shiffrin, the leader in the slalom discipline, has won the last two slaloms. With her eighth victory of the year, she increased her big advantage in the total and surpassed Petra Vlhova by 419 points.