Shiffrin Fails to Take Overall Record for Most Female World Cup Wins

8th January 2023

Last modified on January 24th, 2023

Mikaela Shiffrin, the 27-year-old American superstar, had to settled for second place in the night slalom in Flachau on Tuesday. But surely it is only a matter of time before she takes lead. She is currently tied on 82 Women’s World Cup wins with Lindsey Vonn.

     

It was a nail-biter on the race course in the Austria resort of Fachau.

The Slovakian, Perta Vlhova, was in the lead after the first run with Shiffrin close behind her in second place.

On the final run Shiffrin rose to the top of the leaderboard, only to be pushed into second place on Vhlova’s final run.

Shiffrin was 0.43 second behind.

Vlhova finished 0.43 seconds ahead of Shiffrin.

Lena Duerr of Germany was third, 0.85 off the pace.

“I don’t feel very well, but that is not surprising at the end of a long stretch of races,”

Shiffrin told Austrian TV before feeling even worse and going into a tent adjacent to the finish area.

“And no matter what, Petra skied amazing tonight and she deserves the victory.”

Shiffrinโ€™s next chance to break the record will come in a super-G race in Cortina, Italy, in 10-days time.

She does not plan to race in the speed races in St Anton this weekend.

Mikaela Shiffrin equalled Lindsey Vonnโ€™s record of 82 World Cup wins after victory in the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on Sunday.

“I was so nervous for this run, I have a rash on my face because I was so nervous,” said Shiffrin after that record-equalling performance.

“Maybe it was because of the 82, I don’t know, I just really wanted to ski it well and I did. I can’t believe it.”

She had a 0.24-second lead over the field after her first run and then stretched it further in the second.

She finished well ahead of Italy’s Federica Brignone in second place, while Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami came third.

Shiffrin is the reigning overall women’s World Cup champion, with four Crystal Globe titles in her career, and she comfortably leads this season’s overall standings.

Shiffrin went to 81 wins last week but was deniedย  by the weather in Zagreb, Croatia, on Thursday and then by a mistake on the second run in the giant slalom on Saturday at Kranjska Gora.

We reported here on the anticipation of her equaling Vonn’s record.

Surely Shiffrin will soon have the highest number of women’s victories shortly.

Then she willย  have Ingemar Stenmarkโ€™s all-time tally of 86 firmly in her sights.

Who would bet against her doing that in 2023?

Vonn, who retired from racing in 2019,ย  said in interviews in 2022 that she believed Shiffrin would break her record.

Before Shiffrin equalled it Vonn was quoted in a German newspaper saying she already rated her compatriot as the best female alpine skier in history.

“The best skier that has ever lived in my eyes,” she said.

“She will break my record of World Cup wins very quickly and will become the greatest skier in history.”

Shiffrin began to close in on the record in Semmering, Austria, as 2022 came to a close.

She won back-to-back Giant Slalom races there on consecutive days to clock up victories 78 and 79.

https://twitter.com/usalpineskiteam/status/1608085734275305477

They were her first wins in GS since December 2021.

Shiffrin had already overtaken Stenmark, breaking his record for World Cup wins in slalom.

She achieved that with her 47th victory at Schladming in January 2022

Shiffrin had at least one win in all four of the main disciplines in the 2022 calendar year โ€” downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom.

It’s all a long time since 16-year-old Shiffrin stepped onto a World Cup podium for the first time in January 2012, becoming the youngest US skier to do so for 30 years.

Shortly after she spoke to PlanetSKI’s editor, James Cove, in the series of “Chairlift Chats” video interviews that we were running at the time.

Her comments about being compared to Lindsey Vonn now take on extra significance.

James thought she was a ski star in the making and it seems his hunch all those years ago has proved to be correct.

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