(Špindleruv Mlýn) American Mikaela Shiffrin won the slalom in Spindleruv Mlyn (Czech Republic) on Saturday, her 85e success in the World Cup which allows him to approach a victory of the absolute record of the Swedish alpine ski legend Ingemar Stenmark.
With a second slalom in the Czech resort on Sunday, 27-year-old Shiffrin has a first chance to equal Stenmark’s record of 86 victories set in the 1970s and 1980s, a benchmark that American Lindsey Vonn had approached (82 wins) in the 2010s.
A little nod to history, it is on the track of Spindleruv Mlyn, where she made her first start in the World Cup on March 11, 2011, that she can become the equal of Stenmark on Sunday, close to twelve years later.
On Saturday, the skier from Vail (Colorado) signed her eleventh victory of the 2023 season and is heading straight for a fifth big crystal globe, a reward awarded to the winner of the general classification of the World Cup. She is 671 points ahead of her first pursuer, the Slovak Petra Vhlova, 12 races from the end of the season.
The women’s record is currently owned by the Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll, with six large globes.
The four-time world slalom champion (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019) arrived in the Czech Republic with two consecutive giant slalom victories at Kronplatz (Italy) on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the slalom scheduled for Sunday, she will have competed in seven races in ten days, as the World Championships begin on February 6 in Courchevel / Méribel, in the French Alps.
For the first slalom contested at Spindleruv Mlyn, Shiffrin was the fastest in the first run, with a small lead over the German Lena Dürr (29/100) and Petra Vlhova (46/100), the others competitors showing more than a second behind the best time.
In the second run, on a track in perfect condition, she again achieved the best time to finally beat the German Lena Dürr (+060) and the Swiss Wendy Holdener (+131).
“I knew that if I took a little risk, there was a chance that I wouldn’t finish the race. I had to take my best curves to have a chance, because these women are so strong,” Shiffrin commented after the race.