Mikaela Shiffrin won her 83rd World Cup race Tuesday, claiming the women’s record for the most World Cup victories in alpine skiing.
Her win broke a tie with her former teammate and fellow American Lindsey Vonn. The 27-year-old had tied Vonn’s mark of 82 wins on Jan. 8 with a grand slalom victory in Slovenia.
And here is the Run that crowned @MikaelaShiffrin the most successful female skier in the history of skiing 🎩#fisalpine pic.twitter.com/ciDedGj8gv
— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) January 24, 2023
The record-breaking win also came in the giant slalom. Shiffrin finished ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami by 0.45 seconds for her ninth victory of the season and her 18th total in giant slalom. She holds a record 51 wins in slalom.
“It might take me a little bit to figure out what to say,” Shiffrin said afterward. “I don’t know what to say right now.”
Shiffrin will have the opportunity to increase her record Wednesday, with another giant slalom scheduled at Italy’s Kronplatz resort. She’ll next set her eyes on the overall record of 86 World Cup victories, set by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark.
No alpine skier outside the trio of Shiffrin, Vonn and Stenmark has recorded even 70 wins.
This World Cup season features seven more technical races (slalom and giant slalom), which are Shiffrin’s strength. She’s won eight of those 14 races this season.
In a recent interview, Stenmark said it’s a matter of if, not when Shiffrin breaks his record – and by how much.
“I don’t know who will be the first but I think that [Mikaela] Shiffrin will win more than 100 and it doesn’t make me sad at all,” Stenmark told Olympics.com.