SWEDEN
\nMikaela Shiffin became the most successful racer in the history of World Cup skiing as she won for the 87th time with victory in the slalom at Are on Saturday.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to comprehend that thought,\u201d said Shiffrin after sealing the victory that lifts her ahead of the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark whose record of 86 victories she equalled 24 hours earlier by winning the giant slalom at the same venue.
\n\u201cMy brother and sister-in-law got here. I didn\u2019t know they were coming so that makes it so special,\u201d said Shiffrin.
\nTwo days shy of her 28th birthday, the American finished 0.92 seconds ahead of second-placed Wendy Holdener to secure her 13th World Cup win of the season at the Swedish ski station where, fittingly, she had opened her World Cup account back in 2012 as a 17-year-old.
\nAre also happens to be Stenmark\u2019s own home turf.
\n\u201cShe is so impressive, she\u2019s awesome,\u201d Stenmark told AFP by telephone on Saturday.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s great for her, fantastic. And especially since she beat the record in Are where she won her first World Cup race.\u201d
\nAfter a blistering opening run, she led Sweden\u2019s Anna Swenn Larsson by 0.69 seconds at the halfway stage with Holdener of Switzerland third at 0.94sec.
\nAnother Swede Cornelia Oehland was quickest on the second run but Shiffrin had enough of a cushion to ease to a convincing and comfortable record-breaking victory.
\n\u201cThe best feeling is to ski on the second run when… you have a lead,\u201d said Shiffrin.
\n\u201cYou 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\u2019s amazing.\u201d
\nShiffrin secured her fifth overall crystal globe last weekend.
\nBy a quirky coincidence, Saturday\u2019s record-breaking win comes 12 years to the day after Shiffrin, two days short of her 16th birthday, made her World Cup debut in the giant slalom at Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic.
\nSince then she has clocked up 87 wins from 245 starts.
\nLike Shiffrin, Stenmark relished the slalom and giant slalom with the Swede dominating the two disciplines from 1975 before retiring in 1989.
\nBut while the Swede won all his World Cups in slalom and giant slalom, Shiffrin has developed into a skier for all disciplines with her World Cup haul comprising 53 wins in slalom, 20 in giant slalom, five in super-G, three in downhill, five in parallel slalom and one combined.
\nShiffrin arrived at Are on the back of the world championships in France where she won gold in the giant slalom and silver in both the super-G and slalom.
\nShe is also a two-time Olympic gold medallist despite failing to make the podium at all last year in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SWEDEN Mikaela Shiffin became the most successful racer in the history of World Cup skiing as she won for the 87th time with victory in the slalom at Are on Saturday. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to comprehend that thought,\u201d said Shiffrin after sealing the victory that lifts her ahead of the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark whose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-319188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n