No different skier, male or feminine, has received greater than 86 World Cup races.
GURGL, Austria — Mikaela Shiffrin earned her record-extending 99th profession World Cup win Saturday, taking the hunt for victory No. 100 to North America.
The American ski star held on to her first-run lead within the season’s second slalom to beat Italian prodigy Lara Colturi, who begins for Albania, by 0.55 seconds and Swiss skier Camille Rast by 0.57. They each acquired their first profession podium end result.
Shiffrin subsequent enters a 16-day North American portion of the World Cup beginning subsequent weekend, with a large slalom and slalom in Killington, Vermont; two GS races in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec; and a super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“I assume there’s a little bit of stress round it, however I will attempt to ignore that,” stated Shiffrin, who additionally received the first slalom of the season in Levi, Finland every week in the past.
“Anyway, if it occurs, it is fantastic. If it does not occur, form of nothing to cry about within the grand scheme. However I hope to have a extremely good efficiency in entrance of the house crowd.”
No different skier, male or feminine, has received greater than 86 World Cup races. Shiffrin set one of the best mark when she overtook Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark in March 2023.
Shiffrin carried a lead from the primary run, however acknowledged to being “actually nervous on the prime” earlier than the beginning of her second run.
“I might hear all the ladies taking place and their groups have been cheering, and that all the time means they’d a extremely good run. And it was getting darker,” stated Shiffrin, including she did not “suppose it is occurring right this moment.”
Shiffrin initially prolonged her result in greater than seven-tenths of a second and solely misplaced fractions of that over the past two sections.
“It feels actually satisfying to have a extremely nice run down this slope. What a beautiful day,” she stated.
Within the first run, Shiffrin wasn’t clear going into the steep of the Kirchenkar course however gained time on all rivals with a near-flawless part towards the end.
“It’s a reasonably unusual floor, like chilly and dry. It’s laborious to be clear on the skis. So, I used to be feeling somewhat bit funky on some spots,” Shiffrin stated after the opening run.
“However ultimately, I stored pushing ahead, simply stayed on prime of it and pushed to the end. I discover it to be actually difficult on this situation to search out the proper setup to really feel clear and to really feel like you’ll be able to unleash the skis.”
Swiss skier Wendy Holdener, who was second after the opening run, dropped to fourth, and Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan trailed by 1.10 seconds in sixth.
Olympic champion Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin’s largest rival in slalom, hasn’t returned to racing but after present process knee surgical procedure final season.
Gurgl was a brand new venue on the ladies’s World Cup, after it staged a males’s race final season. The resort within the Austrian Alps is only a 15-kilometer drive from Soelden, the place the conventional season opener happened 4 weeks in the past.
The lads race a slalom on the identical hill on Sunday.
