Mikaela Shiffrin Breaks 34-Year-Old Record and Resets the Skiing World
American skiing sensation Mikaela Shiffrin has achieved what many considered to be unbreakable, as she won her 87th World Cup race on Saturday in Are, Sweden, to break Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark’s 34-year-old record.[0] Just 27, Shiffrin “reset” Stenmark's record in 1,170 fewer days than it took the now 66-year-old to reach his 86th World Cup win in 1989.[1]
Shiffrin’s career has been a remarkable one, starting with her fifth season on the tour, when she blossomed from a slalom specialist into perhaps the world’s best all-around skier, branching out into the speed events with success and winning her first of her five overall World Cup titles, the prize more coveted in the sport than even Olympic gold.[2] She is the only skier, regardless of gender, to have claimed victory in World Cup races for all six disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super-G, combined and parallel slalom.
Many of Shiffrin's career highlights occurred at the location of the race.[3] In 2012, she won her first World Cup at a resort in Sweden by the lake, and in 2019, she took home the slalom gold at the world championships to become the first skier ever to win the world title in one discipline for four consecutive years.
She had secured her fifth world championship and achieved 13 World Cup victories this winter.[4] Sofia Goggia of Italy is the only other skier to have achieved more than two wins, with a total of five.[4] Mikaela Shiffrin earned the record for most wins in a single season, totaling 17 during the 2018-19 season.[4] She will conclude her year at the upcoming World Cup Finals next week.[4]
Shiffrin dominated the first run of the slalom and posted the fifth-fastest time in the second to beat Swiss skier Wendy Holdener by 0.92 seconds.[3] She now has a record 53 World Cup slalom wins and will try to claim the World Cup wins record outright in the slalom on Saturday, before heading to the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Austria, next week.
Of all the remarkable facts and figures associated with Shiffrin, Pech, a former ski racer at Boston College, identifies a few that really stand out.[1]
0. “Mikaela Shiffrin cares more about how she got record than actual wins” USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2023, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2023/03/11/mikaela-shiffrin-gives-master-class-in-winning-right-way/11453670002
1. “Mikaela Shiffrin's road to the World Cup ski racing record” ESPN, 11 Mar. 2023, https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/35753995/mikaela-shiffrin-breaks-ingemar-stenmark-world-cup-record
2. “Mikaela Shiffrin lays claim as best ever after record-setting 87th World Cup win” The Guardian, 11 Mar. 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/11/mikaela-shiffrin-breaks-record-skiing-world-cup-wins
3. “Mikaela Shiffrin sets World Cup skiing record with 87th win” WYFF4 Greenville, 11 Mar. 2023, https://www.wyff4.com/article/mikaela-shiffrin-sets-world-cup-skiing-record/43279363
4. “Shiffrin Sets Skiing’s All-Time Record for Most World Cup Wins” Sportico, 11 Mar. 2023, https://www.sportico.com/personalities/athletes/2023/shiffrin-skiing-all-time-record-world-cup-wins-1234712207/
