Mikaela Shiffrin Extends World Cup Record with 99th Victory

Mikaela Shiffrin secured her 99th World Cup race victory, extending her own record, by winning the women’s slalom event in Austria. This achievement follows her record of eight World Cup season titles in slalom. The 29-year-old American’s triumph on Saturday sets the stage for her to potentially achieve a milestone of 100 career victories in front of a home audience next weekend. She is slated to compete in the giant slalom at the Killington resort in Vermont on 30 November, with the slalom race scheduled for the following day. Regarding the possibility of reaching this significant milestone in the United States, Shiffrin commented, “I guess there is a bit of pressure around it, but I try to ignore that.” She added, “If it happens, it’s wonderful, if it doesn’t happen it’s kind of nothing to cry about in the grand scheme, but I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd.” In Gurgl, Shiffrin delivered a characteristically dominant performance, fending off two younger competitors to finish with a combined time of one minute 40.22 seconds. She held a narrow lead of one-hundredth of a second after the first run, which she then expanded to 0.55 secs in the second run. This secured her victory over Albanian teenager Lara Colturi, who placed second, and Switzerland’s Camille Rast, who finished third. Both Colturi, 18, and Rast, 25, achieved their first World Cup podium finishes. Shiffrin revealed she felt “really nervous” before her final run but managed to maintain her composure to clinch her 62nd World Cup win in the slalom discipline. This victory also means she has maintained a 100% start to the slalom season, having also won the opening race in Finland last weekend.