Mikaela Shiffrin achieved today in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) her 82th World Cup Victory with another demostration perfomance. She is now level with Lindsey Vonn (82) as World Cup wins record holder among women. The only skier to have won more World Cup events is Ingemar Stenmark (86).
"I can't believe it. I was so nervous in the second run, I have a rash on my face because I was so nervous. I felt like I was going to pass out. I imagined 100 scenarios in my head on how to get to the finish, and I lost 99 of them. I don't know why, maybe a little bit was because of 82. I really wanted to ski it well, and I did", Shiffrin said.
When she was 16-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin, in her 8th World Cup start she made it onto the podium in Slalom in December 2011 in Lienz. A year after she won her first World Cup race in Are on December 2012 when she was only 17-year-old. Today she achieved her 82th World Cup win in 233 starts. Lindsey Vonn won her first World Cup race at age 20 and her last at age 33, after starting 395 races in her career.
The US skier has a record of 51 Slalom wins, 17 Giant Slalom wins, 5 Super-G wins, 3 Downhill wins and one in the Alpine Combined. She also won 5 Parallel races.
The 27-year-old US skier is second in the ranking of victories in the discipline. Only Vreni Schneider (20) has had more wins in the Giant Slalom than Shiffrin.
Today she has set the fastest time in both runs, she skied clean and yet aggressively, and claimed her third win of the season in Giant Slalom and her eighth overall this season.
"I hope some day I can ski like today again because it was maybe the best thing I ever did in a Giant Slalom. I got a report from the coaches that everything is fully attackable so really you have to go for it. I've been in this position and I've given it away and today I wanted to fight for it", Shiffrin added.
Federica Brignone scored today her 50th podium in the World Cup. She finished in second place 0.77 seconds behind Shiffrin. It's her first World Cup podium this season. The last time she was on the podium was in the Finals in Courchevel-Meribel when she won the Giant Slalom.
"Today I had a super first run, and in the second run I started really a bit sleepy and then I said to myself, 'You wake up or you're going to end again fourth or fifth,' so I really tried my best and I was pushing til the end", Brignone said.
Lara Gut-Behrami was third, 0.97 seconds behind Shiffrin. It is the third podium in the Giant Slalom this season for the Swiss skier. She won the opening women's Giant Slalom event in Killington on 26 November, and finished in second place in Semmering on 28 December.
Despite she made it from a 5th place in the first run to the podium, Gut-Behrami was not completely satisfied with her performance. “The balance at the gates isn't quite right yet, but I'm fast. That's positive", she said.
Is the first time Gut-Behrami finished on the podium in Kranjska Gora. Until today her best result in the Slovenian ski resort was a 4th place in 2021.
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