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Mikaela Shiffrin secured the 100th Alpine skiing World Cup victory of her career on Sunday, winning the slalom event in Sestriere.
The American finished 0.61 seconds ahead of Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic to extend her record tally of wins at the event and become the first skier, male or female, to reach triple digits in World Cup race victories.
“Everybody’s been so nice and so supportive. All of my team mates and competitors and coaches and the whole World Cup. I’m so grateful,” a tearful Shiffrin said after her historic victory in Italy.
Shiffrin’s compatriot, Paula Moltzan, finished third thanks to an excellent second run, while the world champion, Camille Rast, crashed out in her first run. “I think it’s pretty special to share it with Paula,” Shiffrin added. “We just keep pushing – she pushes, and I push. And we made it achievable.”
She added: “Today a lot of things had to go right for me and actually wrong for some others. Camille, on the first run, was just so fast. So a lot of things had to go in my direction. But in the end I did something right too.”
The 29-year-old’s hunt for her 100th career World Cup win was put on hold after she crashed during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, in November. She suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen and said she was left in a “mental, psychological PTSD-esque struggle” when returning to the sport.
Despite that, Shiffrin won a record-equalling 15th career world championships medal earlier this month in Saalbach, when she and downhill champion Breezy Johnson struck gold in the new women’s team combined event.
Shiffrin had appeared slightly off the pace in her World Cup return, finishing 25th in the Sestriere giant slalom on Friday and failing to make the cut in the same category on Saturday as home favourite Federica Brignone won the event.
In January 2023, Shiffrin passed compatriot Lindsey Vonn by winning her 83rd World Cup race, the most by a female skier. The double Olympic gold medallist then established herself as the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history, male or female, when she topped the retired Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 victories.
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In the men’s World Cup super-G in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Saturday, overall World Cup leader and home hero Marco Odermatt took his 45th World Cup victory ahead of compatriot Alexis Monney, while Italian veteran Dominik Paris completed the podium.
