After equaling Lindsey Vonn and her 82 victories in early January, Manuela Shiffrin now holds the record alone, at just 27 years old. The skier from Vail (Colorado) won her 83rd success in the first slalom at Kronplatz. She bases “all schuss” on the mythical 86 victories, absolute record, of the Swede Ingemar Stenmark.
The world number 1 can reach them before the Courchevel/Meribel Worlds (from February 6 to 19) if she wins the three World Cup races on the program by then, again on Wednesday at Kronplatz as a giant then on Saturday and Sunday at Spindleruv Mlyn (Czech Republic) in slalom.
In demonstration
“There are no words to explain all these feelings, during a day it is both stressful, sometimes calmer, sometimes nervous”, she reacted on Eurosport after her ninth victory of the season, four in slalom, four in giant and one in super-G. “I just tried to breathe and enjoy it”, she added, also thanking the track preparers: “these are the best conditions we have had in racing this season.”
On the Erta track at Kronplatz, where she had won in 2019, she delivered a new demonstration by setting the best time of the two races. She is ahead of the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami by 45/100 and the Italian Federica Brignone by 1 sec 43/100. The American is steadily increasing her lead at the top of the general World Cup standings (more than 550 points over Gut-Behrami), heading towards a fifth crystal globe that no longer seems to be able to escape her.
Saluted by Vonn
A lead that she owes to her nerves of steel, her technique but also her absolute confidence currently, as she had shown this weekend in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the speed events, a little less her specialty, where she hadn’t finished far from the podium. This record of World Cup victories had been promised for several years to Shiffrin, who won the first at the age of 17, in December 2012. She could take it to unthinkable levels if she continues her prolific career.
Shiffrin doesn’t yet have quite the notoriety outside the ski sphere of the legendary Lindsey Vonn, who retired in 2019, but she is now well and truly the first in the history of her sport. “Reaching this milestone is an incredible accomplishment,” said Vonn, quoted by the American federation. “We Americans have been able to produce incredible athletes and I can’t wait to see who Mikaela will inspire,” she said.
If she hates talking about numbers and statistics, which “dehumanize the sport and what each athlete tries to accomplish”, Shiffrin should also do better than Vonn at the end of the season by winning a fifth big globe after 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022. With this record and this start to the season, she completely erased the failure of the Olympic Games in Beijing last year, from where she left without a medal but with three outings.
Even if Shiffrin leaves only crumbs to her rivals this season, Federica Brignone does not admit defeat for the second giant on Wednesday: “I was already with Mikaela (on the podium, editor’s note) for her 82nd victory, I am for the 83rd, but I hope that the 84th will not happen immediately because I would like to do better tomorrow”.