Mikaela Shiffrin adds 84th World Cup win to record total
SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin didn’t wait long to add to her record total of World Cup wins.
A day after taking the record win No. 83, Shiffrin added his 84th victory on Wednesday in another giant slalom on the same course.
And just like she had the day before, Shiffrin led from start to finish, dominating the first run on the steep Erta course, then adding to her advantage in the second run.
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Shiffrin finished 0.82 seconds ahead of two-time Olympic silver medalist Ragnhild Mowinckel and 1.19 ahead of Olympic champion Sara Hector.
When Shiffrin reached the finish after her second run, she collapsed on the snow in an apparent state of exhaustion – with her skis still strapped to her boots – before Mowinckel and Hector came to congratulate her and l help to get up.
“Oh my God,” Shiffrin said. “I was pushing so hard, and I was just hoping I would end up on the right side of all the gates. Now I’m kind of dead mentally – so tired. But when you ski like that, it keeps your energy, so, just an incredible feeling.”
Tuesday’s win put Shiffrin ahead of the previous women’s mark of 82 wins held by former USA teammate Lindsey Vonn, and Wednesday’s victory moved her within two of the overall record – either men’s or women’s – of 86 wins held by Ingemar Stenmark.
Vonn retired four years ago when injuries cut his career short, and Stenmark raced in the 1970s and 1980s.
If Shiffrin wins two slaloms in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic this weekend, she could match Stenmark on Sunday.
“Technically it’s possible,” Shiffrin said with a laugh. “We’ll see if I can put the energy on my slalom skis for two more races.
“It’s been busy, and I’m in kind of an unhappy part of my monthly cycle, so I’m more tired right now. We just normalized talking about it,” she added.
It was at Spindleruv that Shiffrin made his World Cup debut as a 15-year-old wonderkid nearly 12 years ago.
“It’s a special place for me,” she said. “So I’m really looking forward to going.”
Former giant slalom world champion Marta Bassino was on course for the podium before losing control just a few gates from the finish and crashing through a gate that hit her shins hard.
It was Shiffrin’s 10th victory of the season and her 19th career victory in the giant slalom, placing her in one of Vreni Schneider’s 20 records in the discipline.
Shiffrin said she had a late night after her record breaking day.
“But it was a very nice evening,” she said. “It was so nice to see messages from people and so much support and so much excitement about the race. I was really watching all of this a lot and then trying to go to bed and have a great night sleep. And I was awake at midnight. I was awake at 3 o’clock. Then I woke up at 5 o’clock. I was hungry all night. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m a mess. .””
Still, Shiffrin managed to pull himself together to bring out his best skiing again.
“After [Tuesday], I was so tired, which made the day quite difficult,” she said. “And I felt nervous because when I ski tired, I make mistakes. And I didn’t want to make a mistake today.
“In the first run, I was like, ‘Either I go out on the fourth gate or this is going to be a really good run. It ended up being a really good run. Run two, I was just trying to trust my ski and keep pushing no matter how I felt.