Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait for at least five more weeks before tying the World Cup record for most career wins with 86.
The American skier finished second in a slalom Sunday and remained one victory short of Ingemar Stenmark’s total on the all-time overall winners list among men and women. The Swede competed in the 1970s and ’80s.
Shiffrin’s next chance will be in March when she resumes World Cup racing after the Feb. 6-19 world championships in France. World championship races do not count toward World Cup wins.
“I don’t have any expectations going into it,” Shiffrin said about her next World Cup event, which will be either speed races in Kvitfjell, Finland on March 4-5 or tech races in Are, Sweden the following week.
“It’s just like every race of the season, trying to take it all in and enjoy – enjoy my skiing, enjoy when the other athletes are skiing better. Because there is always some to learn from that.”
Shiffrin had broken a tie on the all-time women’s list with former American teammate Lindsey Vonn last Tuesday. Vonn had 82 wins when she retired in 2019.
On Sunday, Shiffrin held a commanding first-run lead of 0.67 seconds over Lena Dürr, but posted only the 14th-fastest time in the final run and was edged by 0.06 by the German skier.
“I felt like the first run I skied very well, and I actually skied quite well in the second as well,” Shiffrin said. “And six-tenths is actually not so much time. Lena has been strong all season and she deserves to win.”
It was Dürr’s second World Cup victory, coming 10 years to the day after she won a city event in Moscow.
Zrinka Ljutic was 0.49 behind in third for her first career World Cup podium. The Croatian skier won the junior world title in slalom this month.
Shiffrin, however, still set a record Sunday.
Her second place saw her wrap up the season-long slalom title with two races to spare. Her closest challenger in the discipline standings, Wendy Holdener, had a costly mistake in the opening run and the Swiss skier failed to qualify for the second run and didn’t score World Cup points.
It made Shiffrin the first woman to win seven season titles in slalom, surpassing Swiss standout Vreni Schneider, who won it six times in the 1980s and ’90s.
The women’s record for most titles in any discipline is held by Vonn, who won eight crystal globes as the best downhill skier of the season. (AP)
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