Shiffrin, historic: she broke Vonn’s record and is the skier with the most wins in the World Cup

Mikaela Shiffrin won the Women’s Giant at Kronplatz (Italy) and it wasn’t another victory for the American skier, because she reached 83 wins in the World Cup and broke the record she shared until now with her compatriot and legend Lindsay Vonn.

Shiffrin, 27, completed both rounds on the Erta track in Plan de Corones with a time of 2:00.61, which allowed her to leave behind the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami (+0.45) and the Italian Federica Brignone (+1.43). “There isn’t a single word to explain this. During the day you are nervous, restless, tense, tired... Too much tension to explain it,” she said after making history in alpine skiing.

Shiffrin won her first World Cup in December 2012 when she was 17 years old, in the Are slalom (Sweden), while on January 8 she had managed to match Vonn’s 82 victories (she retired in 2019 due to injuries) by winning the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia).

“I’ve tried to do my best and I’m really happy. The current level of skiing is very high and it’s an honor to be there, in the fight for victory, always on the edge. It’s a mistake that takes you out of the podium. We have to try to take risks and do it well,” said the American, who is also the only woman who managed to win in the six disciplines that the World Cup has: she won the giant 18 times, while she has 51 slalom wins, three descents, five Super Giants, one combined and five parallels.

The Colorado native born on March 13, 1995 has been competing on the World Cup circuit since 2011 and in the 2016/2017 season she achieved another unprecedented event in men or women by winning 17 races. In addition, Shiffrin won three Olympic medals: in Sochi 2014 she won the gold in the slalom event, while in Pyeongchang 2018 she won the giant slalom and won the silver one in the combined. She also has 11 World Cup medals (six gold, two silver and three bronze).

Shiffrin suffered a severe blow to her life when her father, Jeff, died in a domestic accident in February 2020. “There was a long time when I didn’t really feel like anything was worth worrying about. It seemed like I wasn’t going to ski again because the most fundamental thing about an athlete is that you have to worry about your sport and do it well. And I just didn’t do it,” she acknowledged in an interview on the Today program. Mikaela returned and after her 82nd victory, she remembered her dad: “I wish I could go back to a time when I could share it with more people that I love”

The American will now seek the absolute record of 86 World Cup victories held by Ingemar Stenmark, the great legend of alpine skiing. “Shiffrin will win more than 100 and it doesn’t sadden me at all,” the Swedish, double Olympic champion (slalom and giant slalom) in Lake Placid 1980 and who won his last World Cup victory on February 19, 1989 in Aspen, had predicted in an interview with Olympics.com.

“Reaching the Ingemar Stenmark mark of 86 wins was always the ultimate goal for me, but with the injuries I suffered it just wasn’t possible,” Vonn said after Shiffrin equaled the record and said of her compatriot: “I don’t think Stenmark is necessarily the reference point. She’s going to set the new standard and we’ll have to wait and see how high it can go. For her, the sky’s the limit.”