Paris (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin’s 100th World Cup victory on Sunday cemented her place as the best alpine skier ever, the American vowing there was more to come in her iconic career. Hitting the mythical three-figure barrier leaves Shiffrin with a record that will doubtless stand for a generation given the increasing demands on modern-day skiers. Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski Federation (FIS), said that Shiffrin’s record would take some beating.
“Well, we said that after Ingemar Stenmark after his 86,” Eliasch acknowledged of the Swede’s World Cup tally that was long the record. “There will always be somebody. It’s just a question of when. But that might take a very long time,” he said of Shiffrin. The 29-year-old’s slalom victory in Sestriere is all the more remarkable because it comes so soon after an abdominal puncture sustained in a crash in November that sidelined her for two months.
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“My dream since I was a child has been to make beautiful turns and to improve every day,” she said. “I just have to take this day and be grateful for it.” She made her comeback from that injury at Courchevel last month before heading to Saalbach for the world championships where she partnered downhill champion Breezy Johnson to win gold in the team combined. But she opted out of defending her giant slalom title, citing symptoms like post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by her fall and injury. She finished fifth in the slalom, missing out on what would have been a record-setting 16th world championship medal.
Shiffrin currently has 15 world championship medals: eight golds, four silvers and three bronzes, including four gold in the slalom. “It’s a strange place to be: returning from an injury, from surgery eight weeks ago, from laying in bed with the drainage up to six weeks ago, to return midseason in the middle of world championships where everybody is talking about the medals,” she said.
**Competitive consistency**
It is testament to Shiffrin’s competitive consistency that she is never written off, injury comeback or not. After making her World Cup debut in March 2011 just a few weeks before her 16th birthday, Shiffrin claimed her first podium in December of the same year and won her first World Cup race in December 2012 at the age of 17. Shiffrin won slalom gold at her first world championships, two days after finishing sixth in the giant slalom.
“It’s been 17 years in the making. Everyone says it comes so fast but it seems like it’s been forever for me,” she said after her win in Schladming. Then came a first Olympic gold — in the slalom — from the 2014 Sochi Games and the first defence of her slalom crown a year later, having already notched up a dozen World Cup wins. Shiffrin sealed a third consecutive world slalom title and also bagged a GS silver at the 2017 St Moritz worlds.
It was a turning point for the then 21-year-old, who vowed “no limits” as she announced her targeting the super-G and downhill in her quest for global domination. There was a botched defence of her Olympic slalom title at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, where she did however claim giant slalom gold. She kicked off proceedings at the 2019 Are worlds by making good on her move up to the speed disciplines, winning gold in the super-G as well as defending her slalom title and a bronze in the GS.
**Push for medals**
The 2021 Cortina worlds came a year after her father Jeff died unexpectedly. Shiffrin immediately returned home to Colorado and spent more than 300 days off the piste, albeit in a season cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a year, she said, that felt “like it lasted 20 years.” She rebounded in Cortina with style: a four-medal showing, including one gold in the alpine combined although she was unable to continue her dominance in the slalom.
Her medal haul saw her become the US skier with most world titles (six) and world medals (11), overtaking Ted Ligety and Lindsey Vonn respectively. By her own high standards, Shiffrin endured a miserable 2022 Beijing Olympics, failing to finish the slalom, giant slalom, and alpine combined events — three events in which she had been a keen favourite. After what she dubbed that “epic under-performance,” Shiffrin again rebounded on the world stage, claiming a first-ever GS title to go along with two more silvers.
“You have to push for medals because that’s what you do at a world champs,” she said. “You wear your heart on your sleeve and you go for it, I’m not afraid of the consequences as long as I have that (attacking) mentality.” Next on the agenda is the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo. It would take a brave pundit to bet against Shiffrin again leaving her stamp on the global stage.
© 2024 AFP
