Shiffrin Matches Vonn's Record With 82nd World Cup Win
Stifel U.S. Alpine Team athlete Mikaela Shiffrin made history, winning her 82nd career World Cup in the Kranjska Gora giant slalom and tying Lindsey Vonn’s record of 82 World Cup victories, the most World Cup wins by a woman alpine ski racer.
The race conditions were unpredictable in Kranjska Gora, but Shiffrin powered through the sugary snow and flat light to win first run. She built on her lead in second run to win by .77 seconds—a massive margin in alpine ski racing. When she crossed the finish line and saw her result, she let out an uncharacteristic celebratory yell and sat on her skis to let it soak in.
Rounding out the podium for the Kranjska Gora Golden Fox Trophy race, Federica Brignone of Italy was second and Lara Gut-Behrami was third.
Shiffrin’s result ties her with the legendary Lindsey Vonn, who collected 82 wins over her storied career, making the two best women alpine skiers in history from the United States and part of the Stifel U.S. Alpine Team. Together these women have inspired generations of skiers and generations to come.
"I can't believe it," Shiffrin said moments afterwards, on the verge of tears after months and years of deflecting talk of chasing this record.
"I was so nervous this run, I have a rash on my face because I was so nervous," she added. "I don't know why, maybe a little bit was because of 82.
"I really wanted to ski it well, and I did."
Did she ever. Shiffrin produced a giant slalom masterclass to win by 0.77 seconds over Italy's Federica Brignone, with Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami recovering from Saturday's disappointment to claim third. First out of the gate in the first run, Shiffrin put down a slick, error-free run to set a time that would not be threatened, with only Brignone (+0.24s) and Canada's Valérie Grenier (+0.39s) able to come within 0.70 seconds of the lead. Skiing last in the second run, Shiffrin skied spectacularly to increase her advantage at each of the first three intermediate splits and eventually win by 0.77 seconds.
"I hope some day I can ski like that again because it was maybe the best thing I ever did in a GS," she said.
"I got a report from the coaches that everything is fully attackable so really you have to go for it. I've been in this position and I've given it away and today I wanted to fight for it."
Shiffrin's 82 wins have been divided between slalom (51), giant slalom (17), super-G (5), downhill (3), city events (3), parallel slalom (2) and Alpine combined (1). The 27-year-old won her first World Cup race at age 17 in December 2012 and has taken only 233 starts to reach 82 wins. In contrast, Vonn won her first World Cup race at age 20 and her last at age 33, starting 395 races in her career.
Shiffrin’s victories have spanned the last decade and she hasn’t let up in 2022-23. This is her eighth victory of the season in the women’s World Cup: two slaloms in Levi, a super-G in St. Moritz, two giant slaloms in Semmering, a slalom in Semmering, a slalom in Zagreb and today’s giant slalom in Kranjska Gora. Her win rate is an extraordinary 35%, which means that when she steps into the start gate, she is likely to win over one-third of all races.
Vonn won 53 World Cup races by the age Shiffrin is now and claimed 29 more victories thereafter, with her last triumph coincidentally taking place in the same resort as Shiffrin's first — Are, Sweden — in March 2018.
One more victory will give Shiffrin the outright women's record and pull her to within three of the record of 86 World Cup wins in either gender, held by legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark.
Back on the slope, runner-up Brignone made a small mistake at the top of her second run and could have been heading for another finish just off the podium, a trend for her this season with four finishes of fourth or fifth in the five previous giant slalom races.
"Today I had a super first run, and the second run I started really a bit sleepy and then I said to myself, 'You wake up or you're going to end again fourth or fifth,' so I really tried my best and I was pushing til the end," she said.
She recovered to finish second ahead of Gut-Behrami, who moved up from fifth with a flawless second run, a day after a disappointing second run caused her to miss the podium.
But despite the impressive podium finishes for Brignone and Gut-Behrami, Shiffrin tying Vonn's record was the only thing on anyone's mind after the race, to Shiffrin's slight embarrassment.
"Maybe at some point people will stop talking about it," she said. "I'm trying not to think about it, I'm trying not to change my goals for this record. But it's 82 victories, it's a bit indescribable."
Paula Moltzan also had a banner day, grabbing the top 10 and tying her second-best giant slalom result in ninth place. Nina O’Brien also made the flip and scored her second World Cup points since her injury at the 2022 Olympic Games.
"I think today was a good step forward of me," said O'Brien. "It is a relief and gives me some confidence, it has been a challenging month or two for me but everyone has been reaching out and has been so supportive."
Ava Sunshine, Stella Johansson and Katie Hensien did not qualify for second run, but cheered for their Stifel U.S. Alpine Team teammates at the finish.
