KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Emotions poured out Michaela Shiffrin when she matched Lindsey Vonn Women’s World Cup ski record with his 82nd victory on Sunday.
First there was a cry of joy following a serious case of nervousness that had been building up in her throughout the day. Then the tears came during the playing of the American anthem when her thoughts turned to her father, Jeff, who died three years ago.
My dad was there and taking pictures. Most of the races these days I think about him and I’m able to refocus,” Shiffrin said. But when I sing the national anthem (it’s different). It was right before I won my first World Cup, he said to me, ‘You better memorize the words to the national anthem, because if you ever win, you better sing it.’ And so I always think of him when I’m up there.
Shiffrin led from start to finish to win a giant slalom by a wide margin and can now beat Vonn’s mark in a scheduled night slalom in Flachau, Austria on Tuesday.
“I was so nervous this race. I have a rash on my face, I was so nervous,” Shiffrin said. “I don’t know why, maybe a bit because of the 82. I really wanted to ski well, and I did.”
Where other skiers struggled on a dark, bumpy and unusually steep course, Shiffrin was able to ski smoothly.
It was a struggle. But it was pretty amazing conditions and I got a report from the coaches and they were like, ‘It’s really attackable, so go for it,’ she said. “I have already held this position and I gave it away and today I wanted to fight for it.”
Already with eight wins this season, Shiffrin is also fast approaching Ingemar Stenmark’s overall men’s and women’s record of 86 wins.
Vonn retired four years ago when injuries ended his pursuit of Stenmark’s record.
Vonn wrote in an AP newspaper that “if someone is going to break my record, I’m really glad it’s an American”.
Shiffrin and Vonn each now have 20 more wins than the next woman on the all-time list, Annemarie Moser-Proll of Austria at 62.
While the often-injured Vonn needed 395 runs for her 82 wins, Shiffrin did it in just 233 runs. And at the age of 27, Shiffrin could compete for many more years and win many more races.
“I knew from the start that she would be the one to break all the records,” Vonn wrote. “But to be able to do it at such a young age is really impressive.”
Shiffrin’s feat comes nearly a year later a disappointing performance at the Beijing Olympicswhen she competed in six events without winning a medal.
Winning this race, however, never really seemed in doubt.
On a cloudy morning, Shiffrin was the early runner and had a much more aggressive opening run than either of her two trips to the steep Podkoren course on Saturday, when she tied for sixth place.
“I couldn’t ski faster,” Shiffrin said after his first run. “I felt much, much better this first run than yesterday. I had to try to change my feeling from yesterday. It was very good skiing and I’m happy with it.
Shiffrin was the last skier to start the second run and increased her advantage at every checkpoint to finish 0.77 seconds ahead of Italian Federica Brignone and 0.97 over Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami.
“She was almost perfect,” Brignone said. “When she skis like that, she’s unbeatable.”
With few American fans racing near the Italian border, supporters of Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova cheered Shiffrin loudly. A few children waved American flags and family members of Paula Moltzan, another American skier, wore American hockey jerseys.
Shiffrin also edged Moser-Proll and Tessa Worley of France with her 17th giant slalom victory for second place on the women’s career list behind only Vreni Schneider, the Swiss skier who has won 20.
New Zealand skier Alice Robinson suffered a nasty fall on her second run, crashing headfirst into the snow, but she quickly got up and skied all the way down.
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