ESPN Lists Mikaela Shiffrin Among The 100 Best Athletes Of The 21st Century

The 100 best athletes of the 21st century, a ranking that was created 25 years ago and only concerned North American athletes but has now been extended to the whole world.

ESPN, one of the world's most important sports channels, is revealing 25 athletes a day every day this week and guess who is among them?

Mikaela Shiffrin, the record holder for the most World Cup victories in alpine skiing (97), becoming the most successful skier in history, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, a five-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom, and an eight-time winner of the World Cup discipline Slalom title. At 18 years and 345 days, Shiffrin is the youngest slalom gold medalist in Olympic history.

These are just some of the outstanding achievements of this great champion, and they will certainly not end here.

They say:

Key accomplishments: Three-time Olympic medalist, two-time Olympic gold medalist, record 96 World Cup wins, 59 World Cup slalom victories (most in a single discipline).

On March 11, 2023, Shiffrin chased down a record that, for 34 years, consumed the minds and careers of countless ski racers and became the winningest alpine skier in history. She won her 87th World Cup race that day, eclipsing the longstanding record held by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark, which many considered to be unbreakable. She did it, of course, quickly, reaching 87 wins nearly three years quicker than Stenmark and by winning at least one race in all six World Cup disciplines -- the only woman or man ever to do so.

But what's most remarkable about Shiffrin's feat is that she won 24 races and two of her five World Cup overall titles after skiing the most disappointing races of her career at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and having people question whether her best years were behind her. 

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