Mikaela Shiffrin wins World Cup slalom to match Vonn's discipline mark
Mikaela Shiffrin keeps closing in on the many Alpine skiing records held by retired standout Lindsey Vonn.
Shiffrin earned her 43rd career World Cup slalom win Sunday at Lienz, Austria, with another dominant performance, posting the fastest times in both runs to beat her Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova by 0.61 seconds.
It matches the 43 downhill wins Vonn collected before retiring last season, the World Cup record for a woman in a single discipline — although Shiffrin is still 18 victories short of Vonn's overall women's mark of 82. And it provided a winning end to an eventful year for Shiffrin, both on and off the course.
While she set a new best mark with 17 World Cup wins in the 2018-19 season and won two world titles, she moved into a new house and saw a two-year relationship with French skier Matthieu Faivre come to an end.
"I feel like I learned a lot, I feel like it's been emotional. I have gone through a lot of changes and transitions in my life," Shiffrin said. "I feel like I grew up a lot this last year. I feel like I was 17 last year and all of a sudden I am 24."
Shiffrin also won Saturday's giant slalom, a win that put her in sole second place behind Vonn on the list of all-time World Cup wins.
And even before Sunday's win, Vonn seemed sure that Shiffrin will pass her mark of 82 before long.
"Can't wait to see you break the all time record too!" Vonn wrote on Twitter.
Watched by her parents, Jeff and Eileen Shiffrin, among the 5,400 spectators, Shiffrin built a lead of 0.26 seconds over Vlhova in the opening run.
While Vlhova attacked in the second run on a course set by her coach Livio Magoni, Shiffrin even managed to double her advantage over the Slovakian.
"I saw Petra race and thought I don't know if I can ski that fast. All I can do is try," Shiffrin said. "I know that if I am skiing my very best slalom, then it should be fast. So it was more of a question today if I would have the courage to be aggressive."
Her near-flawless run denied Vlhova a first slalom win in 11 months.
Sunday's victory left Shiffrin three short of the overall record for most wins in a discipline held by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 46 giant slaloms between 1975-89.