• Friday, 28 June 2024

American Shiffrin wins record 87th alpine ski World Cup race

American Shiffrin wins record 87th alpine ski World Cup race

Berlin, 11 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - American Mikaela Shiffrin became the greatest World Cup alpine skier of all-time on Saturday after winning her 87th race, a slalom in Åre, Sweden.

Shiffrin, 28 on Monday, surpassed the record of 86 set by Swedish men's skiing great Ingemar Stenmark in 1989.

Åre is the resort where where she won her first race more than a decade ago and it was also apt she broke the record in her favoured event, the slalom, in Stenmark's native land.

She led after the first run and triumphed by 0.92 seconds overall, beating Swiss Wendy Holdener with a winning time of 1 minute 41.77 seconds combined. Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson was third.

Such is her dominance in women's skiing that Shiffrin has already wrapped up a fifth overall World Cup title, as well as the slalom and giant slalom titles. The season finale is not until next week in Andorra.

Asked what it felt like to be the most successful World Cup skier ever, she said: "It is hard to comprehend that thought. It went exactly as I wanted and that's amazing."

The two-time Olympic and seven-time world champion also paid tribute to those who have helped her throughout her career.

"It's pretty incredible, I just want to say thank you for that," she added.

Shiffrin won her first World Cup race in a slalom in Åre on December 20, 2012, at age 17, and she has never looked back.

She beat compatriot Lindsey Vonn's women's record 82 wins in January and drew level with Stenmark, whose record was considered unbeatable by many, in a giant slalom on Friday.

Many experts believe she can also reach the 100 mark if she stays healthy.

Shiffrin has won a World Cup discipline record 53 slaloms, 20 giant slaloms, five super-g and parallel races each, three downhills and one alpine combined.

Her 87th victory came in the 246th World Cup race which also marked her 136th podium finish.

Stenmark won all of his races in slalom (46) and giant slalom (40), his 86th and final victory, and 155th podium, coming in the 228th of his 230 career World Cup races in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shiffrin now has 13 wins in another outstanding season. In addition, she won giant slalom gold plus super-g and slalom silver at last month's world championships in France.