History is at your fingertips Mikaela Shiffrin after the American skier claimed her 81st victory in a World Cup race on Wednesday (January 4).
The two-time Olympic champion triumphed in the first of two slalom races held this week at Sljeme in Zagreb, Croatia, and came close to one win by an American Lindsey Vonnthe women’s all-time record of 82 – a mark he may equal on Thursday.
Shiffrin’s win leaves her five behind Sweden’s absolute record of 86 Ingemar Stenmark.
The 27-year-old led after the first run for nearly a quarter of a second from Anna Swenn Larsson and more than half a second from Petr Vlhova. When Swenn Larsson made a mistake on her second run, Shiffrin made her own second attempt with a 0.55 second advantage.
A lightning-fast second run, in calm, windless conditions overnight in Zagreb, saw Shiffrin – the last of the 30 skiers to make the cut for the second run – extend her lead to win in a total of one minute and 36.42 seconds, 0.76 seconds ahead of Vlhova.
Swenn Larsson finished third.
“I’m incredibly happy, I had a great time skiing today and it was my best skiing ever,” Shiffrin later told FIS TV. “Nothing less than the best won’t work, and I took all the risks I needed. It’s an amazing feeling when it’s good enough.”
With her fifth consecutive World Cup win, Shiffrin extended her lead in both the Crystal Globe World Cup overall and the slalom classification. She’s driving now Wendy Holden by 105 points in slalom and Vlhova by 409 points in total.
The second slalom will take place on Thursday at 15:00 and 18:00 local time.
