Mikaela Shiffrin celebrated with a shoulder wiggle and a vivid smile Saturday after dominating a slalom and transferring inside of one victory of the 34-year-old World Cup document of 86 wins.
The American confirmed no indicators of power, an afternoon prior to some other slalom by which she may fit the most efficient mark set via Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark within the Eighties.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get this record. Now, I’m so close that it’s like just take a breath and enjoy the moments we are in now,” Shiffrin said.
She had shared the women’s record of 82 wins with former teammate Lindsey Vonn before triumphing at back-to-back slaloms in Italy this week and adding career win 85 on Saturday.
“I’m always trying to think about everything else except these numbers, because they just make me nervous. And I don’t have a reason to be nervous if I get 86 or 87,” Shiffrin said. “But, for sure, if everybody asks, then I feel pressure to do it and then I don’t enjoy the races as much.”
Shiffrin surely loved the race Saturday, which marked her 3rd win inside of 5 days.
“Today, it was just an amazing day. From the moment I woke up, I felt good and ready to go. And I was so happy with how I skied,” said the American, adding she had to overcome signs of fatigue.
“Sometimes when you’re tired, it takes away the nerves because you just don’t have the energy to be nervous,” she stated. “Maybe it is a bonus for me lately, however I’m slightly making it thru the next day prior to I want a few days off.”
The American held a lead of 0.29 seconds after the opening run, but lost one-tenth of the advantage after going wide on a few turns early in the second before speeding up and posting the fastest run time again, this time shared with Croatian skier Leona. Popovic, to beat Germany’s Lena Dürr by 0.60 seconds.
Shortly after Shiffrin finished the race, third-place Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and runner-up Dürr came over to hug her.
“I knew it would take some risk and there’s a chance that I don’t finish at all, but I have to do my best turns to have a chance because these women are so strong,” Shiffrin said.
Holdener was 1.31 behind in third, followed by Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova of Slovakia in fourth and Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan in fifth.
The race took place at the resort near the Czech-Polish border where she had her World Cup debut as a 15-year-old almost 12 years ago. Shiffrin also won when the venue last hosted a World Cup race, in 2019.
“Wow, I can hear you all so loud. Thank you for the cheering, it’s amazing to race for this crowd,” she stated to the spectators all over a post-race interview.
Shiffrin laid the root for her victory with a blank opening run, by which she had a quick get started and already led her competition via a minimum of 1 / 4 of a 2d on the first intermediate time.
She additionally received time on maximum racers in a tough passage midway thru her run, the place the path set allowed quite a lot of techniques to cross the gates.
“You could ski it either way,” Shiffrin stated. “I used to be ready to in point of fact elevate a large number of pace on the finish of the path. In the tip, I felt superb on my run.”
Shiffrin has won five of the eight slaloms this season and extended her lead in the discipline’s standings over Holdener to 175 points. She could wrap up the title if she leads by at least 200 points after Sunday’s race.
Overall, the American has won 11 races this season. Only twice in her career has she won more races in a single season: 12 in 2017–18 and a record 17 in 2018–19.