SOLDIER – Mikaela Shiffrin won her 21st career giant slalom at the World Cup finals on Sunday as the American finished the season with another record.
The win moved Shiffrin past Vreni Schneider, a week after she reached the Swiss skier’s mark of 20 GS World Cup wins. The American has won seven of the last eight races and took the GS world title last month.
The overall record, between men and women, is held by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 46 giant slaloms in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I don’t know, you tell me,” Shiffrin said with a laugh when asked about possible next records in a trackside interview conducted by her friend and downhill World Cup champion, Alexander Aamoud Kilde.
“Just keep going,” added Shiffrin, who secured the overall, slalom and GS titles this season and extended her record for most career wins to 88.
After Kilde asked her about improvement plans for next season, Shiffrin quipped, “We can talk about that later, privately.”
Shiffrin also set a personal best of 2,206 World Cup points from 31 starts this season, two more than her tally from 2018-19 when she competed in 26 events.
Only one skier has secured more points in a single season: Slovenian great Tina Maze finished her 2012-13 campaign with 2,414.
Sunday’s result also marked Shiffrin’s record 138th career World Cup podium, surpassing former teammate Lindsay Vonn’s 137.
But for Shiffrin, her personal favorite record came nine years ago.
“Honestly, I think I’m probably the youngest Olympic champion in slalom. It was really the only record I ever really wanted, like I was really going for it,” said Shiffrin, who was 18 when she won her first Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.
“It happened a long time ago and I’m still motivated today, I still had that nervous feeling up there. I was so nervous at first… because you want to do well. And it doesn’t matter about records, you just want to do well.”
With the sun shining over the Avet course, Shiffrin held onto her lead in the first heat to edge out Thea Louise Stjernesund by 0.06 seconds. The Norwegian won her first career podium.
Canadian skier Valerie Grenier is third, trailing Shiffrin by 0.20.
Three of the top seven competitors did not finish their first heats as Petra Valhova, who won Saturday’s slalom, Federica Brignone and Olympic champion Sarah Hector missed a gate.
Two-time former world champion Tessa Worley finished 11th in what she said would be the final race of her career. The French GS specialist has won 16 races and three season titles, most recently last year.
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