The 27-year-old American is confirmed as the most successful by conquering the giant of Kranjska Gora. Mikaela’s next goal is to reach Stenmark at 86
He made it. Mikaela Shiffrin is the new all-time queen of alpine skiing thanks to the eighty-second victory obtained in the giant Kranjska Gora. She joins former teammate, American Lindsey Vonn, who retired four years ago. The feat is unprecedented: between the first success – on December 20, 2012 in Are (slalom) – and the last of the 27-year-old from Vail, Colorado, just ten years have passed.
New life
—
For Shiffrin it is a season worthy of her best, those from 2016 to 2019, with 8 victories (4 in slalom, 3 in giant, 1 in super-G) in mid-season, but built with a different awareness compared to that of the child prodigy, impassive and unbeatable in the White Circus. The death of her father Jeff on February 2, 2020, the only three successes in the following season and the Beijing Olympic disaster (without medals) forced the strongest skier of all time to deal with the “loneliness of the number one”, an invisible enemy on and off the track. The new “Mikaela” is a woman who accepts defeats, who she too celebrates with the team, who no longer suffers from amnesia and smiles in an embrace with her partner, the Norwegian speed king Aleksander Kilde.
Rain of records
—
Shiffrin confirms herself from another planet: with 82 World Cup victories, she is second behind only Stenmark (86) in terms of career victories, at an average of 35.34% which rises to 55.6% if we consider the podiums compared to the races held (129 out of 232); she is the only skier—male or female—to have won a race in each of the six World Cup disciplines (downhill, super-G, slalom, giant slalom, combined and parallel); she is the only one (men included) to have won 51 Cup races in the same specialty, the slalom. All clear evidence that demonstrates that the American she is, at this moment, the strongest female athlete among all sports.
Now the World Cup
—
A heavy baggage, of course, but very light if carried with the class and awareness of Shiffrin, who is heading to the next World Championships in Courchevel-Meribel (February 6-19) with the best of business cards, i.e. 5 consecutive gold medals including four titles in slalom (from 2013 to 2019), the first athlete to do so in any discipline.
January 8, 2023 (change January 8, 2023 | 1:44 pm)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
