SPINDRELV MLIN, CZECH REPUBLIC – American skier Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her 85th career victory by setting the fastest time on the opening run of the Women’s World Cup slalom on Saturday.
If Shiffrin wins the race, he would move within one of the World Cup records of 86 wins set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.
Shiffrin shared the women’s record of 82 wins with former teammate Lindsey Vonn before winning back-to-back giant slalom in Italy this week.
On Saturday, the American was 0.29 seconds ahead of Lena Dür of Germany, with Slovak Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlova in third, 0.46 seconds behind.
“In the end, we had good skis, and I’m happy with that,” said Shiffrin.
The rest of the field was over a second off the pace. The lower skiers were still going down the course.
Shiffrin, who raced at the resort where she made her World Cup debut almost 12 years ago at the age of 15, had an early start and was already leading her competitors by at least a quarter of a second in the first intermediate time. rice field.
She also timed most of the racers on tricky passages in the middle of the run that allowed for different ways the course set through the gates.
“You can slide in either direction,” said Shiffrin. “I was really fast towards the end of the track.
The American has won four of his seven slaloms this season and is looking for his 11th win of the season.
Only twice in her career has she won more than 11 races in one season. In 2017-18 she had 12 and in 2018-19 she had 17.