The end of a false suspense.
By picking up the 86th victory of his career in the World Cup, Mikaela Shiffrin joined the legend Ingemar Stenmark at the top of the alpine ski record books.
What was expected for a few weeks, not to say a few years as the skier from Colorado, very young, dazzled on the slopes, with her very versatile profile, even if the slalom and the giant remain her house specialties.
A look back at a career which, at almost 28 years old (she will be on March 13), is far from being at its twilight.
On the contrary, even, it could well be only at its peak, and bring the American to even more stunning figures.
86
His number of victories, therefore, in the World Cup.
Tied with the Swede Ingemar Stenmark, and ahead of the 82 of a certain Lindsey Vonn, previous female reference.
Shiffrin notably won 52 times in slalom, a record in a single discipline, women and men combined.
A constant for her, whose helmet is adorned with the acronym "
ABFTTB
" for "
Always Be Faster Than The Boys
", remembering a message of encouragement from the former American skier Heidi Voelker.
Otherwise, she won 20 times in giant, 5 in super G, 3 in downhill and during city events, once in combined and twice in parallel.
17
Her age when she won her first World Cup victory.
It was in Are, Sweden, during a slalom.
Second at the end of the first run behind local skier Frida Hansdotter, the American had performed a dazzling second act to sign the birth certificate of a great champion.
1
She is the only one, women and men combined, to have won at least one victory in each of the disciplines of alpine skiing in the World Cup: the four classics of slalom, giant, super-G and downhill, as well as the combined and the parallel event).
With the disappearance, to come or already recorded, of the last two, this record will probably never be equaled.
5
The number of Big Crystal Globes she has won.
Perhaps there would have been a sixth in the 2019-2020 season if the American had not had to end her season before the end due to the tragic death of her father.
In this regard, she is still one unit behind the Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll, and three from the absolute record of Marcel Hirscher.
10
The number of crystal globes of the various disciplines that she has already won.
So counting the one in slalom and giant this season.
Again, the American still has some way to go to set a new record, jointly held by Lindsey Vonn and Ingemar Stenmark with 16 each.
4
The number of world slalom titles she has obtained consecutively, between 2013 and 2019. She is the only one, women and men alike, to have achieved such a performance.
In total, the Colorado skier has been world champion seven times, with her super-G title in 2019, combined in 2021 and giant in 2023, in Courchevel-Méribel.
2204
The number of points she scored during her 2018-2019 season, during which she set a single season win record with 17. However, Shiffrin does not have the points record, still held by the Slovenian Tina Maze in 2012-2013 with 2414 points.
She had won 11 times "
only
", but she had added 12 podiums, finishing first or second in the classification of each discipline.
To hope to beat this figure one day, the American will have to succeed in scoring more in the speed events, mainly downhill.
2
Her number of Olympic titles, with the slalom in 2014 and the giant in 2018. Which places her two gold medals behind the record held by Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt and Croatian Janica Kostelic.
No one has forgotten his zero point in Beijing, with three retirements (slalom, giant and combined), a 9th place in super G and an 18th in downhill.
A failure that she had experienced “
like a humiliation
”, to use her own words.
And that still leaves him plenty of room for improvement between now and 2026 and the Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
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