Queen of the Spline: Mikaela Shiffrin dominates the Alpine Ski World Cup.Picture: www.imago-images.de
Some records seem set in stone. Until someone comes along and makes the impossible possible. Mikaela Shiffrin has surpassed Ingemar Stenmark's tally of 86 Ski World Cup wins for the first time and is on track to take her 100th win this weekend.
Need a lot of words? Not in this case. The sport, especially skiing, thrives on numbers. In the case of 29-year-old American Mikaela Shiffrin, their language is impressive.
99
That’s how many World Cup titles Mikaela Shiffrin has won. On December 20, 2012, at the age of 17, she celebrated her first victory in the slalom race in Alle, Sweden.
Most wins at the Ski World Cup
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Most wins at the Ski World Cup
Ski racing has been held as part of the World Cup since 1967. These drivers have at least 30 wins.
Source: Keystone/Gian Ehrenzeller
This weekend, Shiffrin's flagship event will take place in Killington (USA) with giant slalom (Saturday) and slalom (Sunday). She won the first two ZigZag races of the winter.
154
That’s Shiffrin’s number of podium finishes. Incredibly: Swede Ingemar Stenmark still leads these statistics; the slalom and giant slalom specialist finished first, second or third a total of 155 times.
Steinmark is still in top form: this summer the 68-year-old cleared 3 meters in the pole vault at the World Masters Championships.Picture: www.imago-images.de
56.4%
Mikaela Shiffrin has played in 273 World Cup games so far in her career. With 154 podium finishes, this means she has been on the podium in more than half of her starts.
Her regular position is in the middle: Shiffrin last Sunday, between Lara Colturi (left) and Camille Rust.Image: trapezoid
36.3%
Similar to podium – win rate. The American has won more than a third of his World Cup matches since his debut 13 years ago.
62
That’s the number of times Shiffrin has won in slalom. In the arctic forest, their already absurd success rate is even higher. The slopestyle queen won 54.4% of her World Cup slalom races and finished on the podium in 86 of 114 slalom races, a win rate of 75%.
So close: Shiffrin notched a win at Killington.Picture: www.imago-images.de
In addition to the 62 slalom wins, these successes were added: 22 giant slalom, 5 super-G, 4 downhill, 1 combination and 5 parallel races.
8
The King of Wrestling received a mooney, while the winner of the Finnish Levi slalom received a reindeer and prize money. Shiffrin recently won the competition for the eighth time and named her youngest reindeer Rori. Their herd lives on the Ounaskievari farm and includes Rudolf, Sven, Mr. Gru, Ingmar, Sonny, the Lorax and Grogu.
I have a lot of questions about reindeer, so I thought I'd share some more information about them. They live a comfortable life on a reindeer farm called “Ounaskievari” in Levi – of course we won't take them home (☺️)… The winner gets the naming rights…
(continued below) pic.twitter.com/eNh0MRX5fm— Mikaela Shiffrin ⛷️ (@MikaelaShiffrin) November 26, 2024
12
That's how often Schwyz's Wendy Holdener was beaten only by Mikaela Shiffrin in the slalom. Sometimes the difference between victory and second place is close (0.07 seconds in Soldeu, March 2019), sometimes it is overwhelming (2.36 seconds in Jasna, March 2016).
16
Whoever is the best performer in a season will be rewarded with a beautiful crystal ball. Shiffrin has 16: 5 big ones for winning overall World Cup titles and 11 small ones for winning subject rankings. She won the slalom event alone eight times.
Really like the 2023/24 spinner ball.Image: trapezoid
3+14
This is the number of medals Shiffrin has won at the Olympics and World Championships. The collection includes two Olympic titles (2014 Sochi Slalom, 2018 PyeongChang Giant Slalom) and seven World Championship gold medals, four of which were in the slalom. Shiffrin was even more successful at the World Championships than at the World Cup: she won 14 medals in 17 games.
Shiffrin won gold at the 2014 Olympics, ahead of Austria's Marlies Schild (left) and Kathrin Zettel.Picture: www.imago-images.de
0
The 2022 Beijing Olympics represent a rare low point in his unique career. Mikaela Shiffrin went to China as a candidate for medals in various disciplines but left without one. She was eliminated in the giant slalom, slalom and combined events, and had no results in the super-G (9th) and downhill (18th) as well as the team event, with fourth place coming due to a mix-up.
6 Feng 7
The World Cup has been held in Killington since 2016 and is also the venue for the weekend matches. Shiffrin won six of seven slalom races on a slope called Superstar. In 2022, Shiffrin finished fifth after leading at the halfway mark. It was also historic from a Swiss perspective: “Eternal Second” Wendy Holdener won her 106th World Cup slalom for the first time.
Mikaela Shiffrin is still waiting for success in the Killington giant slalom. She has finished second and third twice. Maybe this Saturday (6pm and 9pm Swiss time) all will go well for her – then this first victory will be the 100th in the World Cup.
At home games in Killington, it's obvious who the fans are rooting for.Image: trapezoid
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