By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) – Mikaela Shiffrin’s sense of timing was impeccable as the American celebrated a record 87th Alpine skiing World Cup win on Saturday in the same Swedish resort of Are where she first triumphed in 2012.
It was fitting also that she became the most successful World Cup skier of all time in the homeland of Ingemar Stenmark, the great whose previous record had endured since his 86th win in 1989.
The 27-year-old Shiffrin said it was hard to comprehend as she celebrated with family members in the finish area, her emotions bubbling over.
Shiffrin had already passed compatriot Lindsey Vonn to become the most successful female skier with her 83rd win in a giant slalom at Kronplatz, Italy, in January.
Saturday’s win was her 13th of the season and she can yet add to the tally with the World Cup finals in Andorra next week.
It now seems just a question of when the double Olympic gold medallist and five times overall World Cup champion will reach the 100 win milestone.
Born in Vail, Colorado to ski racing parents Eileen and Jeff, the child prodigy was first a winner as a 17-year-old high school student.
She went on to claim the first of her seven season titles in slalom in early 2013.
At the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, she made history by becoming the youngest ever winner of an Olympic slalom gold medal, managing to somehow correct herself mid-air during her second trip down the mountain to claim victory.
She ended that season as the Olympic, World Cup and world champion in slalom and her profile grew considerably as media appearances and sponsorships began to pile up for the then 18-year-old star.
Experts said then that if Shiffrin could stay healthy in the perilous sport, she could make a run at the record books and indeed her durability has been a key asset.
Shiffrin has suffered relatively few injury setbacks, the most notable being a right knee injury in December 2015 that kept her away from the tour for two months and back pain in 2021.
Powerful and precise, Shiffrin has won World Cup races in all six disciplines – downhill, super-G, Alpine combined, giant slalom, slalom, and parallel.
The American’s first real taste of professional disappointment came at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang where she surprisingly only managed a fourth-place finish in slalom.
However, she won an unexpected gold in giant slalom and capped off her second Games with a silver in the combined.
FAMILY TRAGEDY
Tragedy struck when her father Jeff died unexpectedly in February 2020 aged 65 after an accident at home.
Upon hearing of his accident, Shiffrin left Europe and flew back to Colorado to be by his hospital bedside with her mother and older brother Taylor.
Often seen taking pictures at the finish line, Jeff was the “CEO of Mikaela Shiffrin the ski racer,” Shiffrin told Reuters in May 2020, handling her finances and working closely with her agent.
Her mother has also had a huge impact on Shiffrin’s career, serving as her longtime ski coach.
The 2022 Olympics proved a low point in Shiffrin’s otherwise sparkling career and the ultimate test of her fighting spirit.
She glided into the Beijing Games with enormous expectations heaped on her shoulders but stunningly fell in three races and left China empty-handed.
Shiffrin bounced back quickly after the disappointment, urging her fans to use her Olympic struggles as a reminder to “Get up, again. Again. Again.”
“I think that reflects her level of professionalism,” Tiger Shaw, former president and CEO for U.S. Ski and Snowboard, told Reuters.
“She can fail spectacularly and come through it and say, ‘Hey, I did the best I can. And I’m sad about the outcome, too, but I tried. I did the best I could.’ And then she’s OK with that.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
