Mikaela Shiffrin Claims Historic Win No. 68 And Podium No. 100 In Flachau, Austria

Mikaela Shiffrin takes 1st place during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Slalom on Jan. 12, 2021 in Flachau Austria. 

With a slalom victory under the lights Tuesday in Flachau, Austria, Mikaela Shiffin earned the 100th world cup podium of her career and claimed her 68th career win, giving her sole possession of third place on the all-time wins list.
Only Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark with 86 and fellow American Lindsey Vonn with 82 have more world cup wins. Shiffrin had been tied at 67 with Austria’s Marcel Hirscher.
The win also marked Shiffrin’s 44th in a world cup slalom race, extending the record she already owns for wins in the discipline. With two more slalom wins she would tie Stenmark for the most wins in a single discipline; Stenmark won 46 in giant slalom.
After clinching win No. 67 last month in a giant slalom in Courchevel, France, the 25-year-old Shiffrin finished third and fourth in subsequent slaloms in Austria and Croatia before breaking through for another victory in Flachau.
The 2014 Olympic slalom champ opened Tuesday’s competition with the fastest opening run, besting Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by .08 of a second and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova by .14. Starting last in the second run, Shiffrin sliced through falling snowflakes to extend her overall lead to .19.
Austria’s Katharina Liensberger finished second, followed by Holdener. Fellow American Paula Moltzan was ninth.
“There’s so much energy,” Shiffrin said. “This has been building up, and I don’t know, it just all went out on that run.”
Shiffrin now ranks third in both the slalom and overall standings.
A three-time world cup overall champ and six-time season slalom champ, Shiffrin has tempered expectations so far this season after missing the end of 2019-20 following the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, and then having her summer training cut short due to COVID-19.
Electing to compete in just slalom and giant slalom so far this season, Shiffrin has nonetheless remained competitive, finishing among the top five in all seven races so far this season, with now two wins and four podiums. However, she’s also shown some rust at times. After reaching the slalom podium in 41 of 43 world cup slaloms coming into the season, she’s fallen just shy twice already in 2020-21.
The long layoff also resulted in Shiffrin going a calendar year between victories in her signature event, with her last one coming Dec. 29, 2020, in Lienz, Austria.
The women’s world cup continues this weekend with back-to-back giant slaloms in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.