Mikaela Shiffrin: American skier wins 87th World Cup to break long-standing record
- Published
Mikaela Shiffrin won her first World Cup in Are 11 years ago
Mikaela Shiffrin became the greatest Alpine skier of all time with her 87th World Cup win - exactly 12 years after making her debut.
Slalom victory in Are, Sweden, saw the 27-year-old American surpass the record of 86 held by Swede Ingemar Stenmark since 1989.
She had drawn level with Stenmark in winning the giant slalom on Friday.
Shiffrin, who won her first World Cup in the same resort in 2012, said her achievement was "hard to comprehend".
She clocked one minute 41.77 seconds across her two runs, putting her 0.92 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Wendy Holdener in the standings.
"The best feeling is to ski on the second run when you have a lead," said Shiffrin.
"You have to be smart but also I just wanted to be fast too and ski the second run like its own race, and I did it exactly how I wanted and that's amazing."
Shiffrin, who turns 28 on Monday, was surprised on the finish line by her brother, Taylor, who she did not know was in attendance.
The Colorado native made her World Cup debut on 11 March 2011, competing in the giant slalom in the Czech Republic.
This season she has amassed 13 wins across all disciplines so far and has secured the overall, slalom and giant slalom World Cup crystal globes.
Meanwhile on the men's World Cup circuit, Marco Odermatt wrapped up his second successive overall title with giant slalom victory in Kranjska Gora.
Switzerland's Olympic champion finished 0.23 seconds ahead of Frenchman Alexis Pinturault.
He leads Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by 486 points with five races remaining, but retained his title with Kilde - Shiffrin's partner - skipping this weekend's giant slalom races.