Mikaela Shiffrin did it. She claimed today in Kronplatz her 83rd World Cup victory. Shiffrin is now the most successful skier in women’s World Cup history.
"I was a little afraid of this day because I was afraid my feelings would go crazy. It’s hard to find words actually. I don’t think there are words to explain all the feelings. During the day it was sometimes stressful, sometimes nerve-wracking, sometimes exciting. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s not something you can explain", Shiffrin said.
Today she has set the fastest time in both runs, she skied clean and yet aggressively, and claimed her fourth win of the season in Giant Slalom and her ninth overall this season.
Shiffrin's 83 World Cup wins are broken down as follows: 51 Slalom, 17 Giant Slalom, 5 Super-G, 3 Downhill, 3 City Events, 2 Parallel Slalom, 1 Alpine Combined. The only skier to have won more World Cup events is Ingemar Stenmark (86).
"The conditions were perfect, it was a lot of fun to ski. I was a bit nervous before the second run, I hate to wait. It's difficult to stay mentally focused. I saw Lara at the start and thought to myself, why am I even watching, she's skiing so fast, I can't do that . But everything worked out in the run and it was great to finish. I just wanted to ski well and I managed to do that. This victory was not easy. The level is incredibly high. You have to go to the limit", said Shiffrin.
It's Shiffrin 18 win in the Giant Slalom. Only Vreni Schneider (20) has won as many World Cup Giant Slalom races among women as Shiffrin. She won three of the last four women's Giant Slalom races in the World Cup (2 in Semmering and 1 in Kranjska Gora).
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 83rd World Cup win in 238 starts.
The previous record holder Lindsey Vonn won her first World Cup race at age 20 and her last at age 33, after starting 395 races in her career.
Only Ingemar Stenmark (155), Marcel Hirscher (138), and Lindsey Vonn (137), have claimed more podiums in the World Cup than Mikaela Shiffrin (131).
Lara Gut-Behrami finished in second place 0.45 seconds behind Shiffrin. She set the second best time in the first run and third in the second one with a superb performance and challenges her opponent to the limit, but today wasn't enough to beat the new World Cup record holder. It's her sixth podium this season and 71 World Cup podium.
The 31-year-old later said in an interview that she no longer had as much energy after the grueling month and was struggling with knee pain. "I started with uncertainty, but now I am very happy. The snow was very grippy and rather easy to ski, which is fun. In previous years it was icier here. The first run was great, the second was weirder", Gut-Behrami said.
Federica Brignone scored today her 53 podium in the World Cup. She finished in third place 1.43 seconds behind Shiffrin. It's her fourth World Cup podium this season.