SPINDLERUV MLYN – Mikaela Shiffrin has to wait at least five weeks before she equals the World Cup record for most career wins at 86.
The American finished second in a slalom Sunday, falling one win short of Ingemar Stenmark’s overall win in the all-time men’s and women’s overall winners list. The Swede competed in the 1970s and 1980s.
Shiffrin’s next chance is in March when she resumes the World Cup after the February 6-19 World Championships in France. World Championship races do not count towards World Cup victories.
“I have no expectations,” Shiffrin said of her next World Cup event, which will be either speed races in Kvitfjell, Finland March 4-5 or tech races in Are, Sweden the following week.
“It’s like every race of the season, I try to take it all in and enjoy it – enjoy my skiing, enjoy when the other athletes ski better. Because you can always learn something from it.”
Shiffrin broke a tie on the all-time women’s list last Tuesday with former American teammate Lindsey Vonn. Vonn had 82 wins when she retired in 2019.
On Sunday, Shiffrin had a commanding lead of 0.67 seconds over Lena Dürr in the first run, but only clocked the 14th fastest time in the last run, being beaten by the German skier by 0.06 seconds.
“I had the feeling that I drove very well in the first race and in the second I even drove quite well,” said Shiffrin. “And six tenths is actually not that much time. Lena has been strong all season and she deserves to win.”
It was Dürr’s second World Cup victory, exactly ten years to the day after her victory at a city event in Moscow.
Zrinka Ljutic was 0.49 seconds back in third place for her first World Cup podium of her career. The Croatian skier won the junior world title in slalom this month.
However, Shiffrin still set a record on Sunday.
With her second place she secured the slalom title of the whole season with two races to go. Her closest competitor in discipline standings, Wendy Holdener, had a costly mistake in the opening heat and the Swiss failed to qualify for heat two and failed to collect any World Cup points.
It made Shiffrin the first woman to win seven season titles in slalom, overtaking Switzerland’s standout Vreni Schneider, who won it six times in the 1980s and 1990s.
The women’s record for most titles across all disciplines is held by Vonn, who won eight crystal globes as the season’s top downhill skier.
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