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Mikaela Shiffrin gets her 86th World Cup victory, tying all-time record set by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark more than three decades ago.
Second to none.
Mikaela Shiffrin matched Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record for World Cup wins on Friday with her 86th victory. The win came in a giant slalom in Are, Sweden, the site of Shiffrin’s very first World Cup victory and Stenmark’s home country.
Shiffrin’s first run all but assured this would be the day she’d catch Stenmark. Using her traditional fast start and skiing with elegant aggression, Shiffrin took a 0.58-second lead into the second run with only two skiers within a second of her.
The two skiers in front of her couldn’t make a serious run at her, with Franziska Gritsch skiing out and Valerie Grenier making a big mistake on the upper part of the course that took her out of contention. That meant Shiffrin just needed a smooth and controlled run and that’s exactly what she did.
As she crossed the finish line, the crowd erupted. Shiffrin put her hands on her helmet and the look on her face seemed to be one of disbelief. She finished 0.64 seconds ahead of Italy’s Federica Brignone.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get this record,” Shiffrin said Jan. 28, after getting her 85th win in a slalom race in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic. “Now I’m so close it’s like, just take a breath and enjoy the moments we’re in now. It’s unbelievable to me how the season has gone already and I’m trying to take the moment to enjoy it.”
She could surpass the Swedish legend still this weekend, with a slalom race Saturday. Of Shiffrin’s 86 World Cup wins, 52 are in slalom and 20 are in giant slalom.
NEVER MISS A MOMENT: Follow our sports newsletter for daily updatesA mark once thought untouchable
Stenmark’s record was considered unbeatable when he set it in 1989. Now Shiffrin is not only on the verge of breaking it, most – Stenmark included — are expecting she could have more than 100 wins by the time her career ends.
