American skier Mikaela Shiffrin tied the World Cup record for the most wins by a single skier after she won a giant slalom race in Are, Sweden, on Friday. She now has 86 wins, which matches the record set by Ingemar Stenmark in 1989.
Shiffrin will have the opportunity to break the record on Saturday in a slalom race, which is her specialty, as it was for Stenmark in the 1970s and 80s. Stenmark, who has said that Shiffrin is “much better than I was,” had promised to watch the race on television from home.
In her first run, Shiffrin was more than one second faster than her rivals and eventually won with a lead of 0.64 seconds. The win was her fourth straight wire-to-wire victory in World Cup giant slaloms since January.
She also took gold in the event at last month’s world championships in France. Shiffrin was pleased with her performance and said, “It’s one of the few runs in my life where, while I was skiing it, I was thinking, ‘This is good.’”
The podium included Olympic champion Sara Hector of Sweden, who finished third, and Canada’s Valerie Grenier, who was second after the first run but finished sixth overall.
Shiffrin clinched the season-long World Cup giant slalom title and secured her 15th career crystal globe trophy. She has already won her fifth overall World Cup title and the slalom title this season.
Shiffrin won her first World Cup race in Are, a slalom in December 2012, and then earned two gold medals at the 2019 worlds at the Swedish resort. She was also due to race there in March 2020 after the death of her father the previous month, but the races were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Shiffrin spoke to a Swedish broadcaster after her victory and addressed Stenmark directly, saying, “No matter what I do, it doesn’t ever compare to what you achieved… But for me, the biggest dream is to be mentioned in the same sentence as you.”
The respect between the two skiing greats goes both ways. Live coverage of the slalom race begins at 4:20 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
»Mikaela Shiffrin wins record-tying 86th World Cup event«
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