Shiffrin just one behind Vonn in career wins

U.S. Ski and Snowboard on Wednesday issued the following press release on Mikaela Shiffrin of Edwards winning her fifth straight World Cup race (81st of her career) and increasing her lead in the chase for an American record fifth overall title to nearly 400 points over Petra Vlhova.

Shiffrin now leads the overall chase 975 to 586. Here’s the U.S. Ski and Snowboard release:

Mikaela Shiffrin scored her 81st win in the Zagreb, Croatia slalom, bringing her within one win to tie the record for the winningest woman alpine skier of all time. It was her fifth FIS World Cup win in a row and her victory crowned her the Snow Queen atop the Sljeme track in front of an enthusiastic night slalom crowd.  

This was Shiffrin’s 51st World Cup slalom win, five of which have come from the infamous Snow Queen Trophy race in Zagreb. It was a warm day with tough snow conditions that caused the start to be lowered and the snow to rut up, but it didn’t seem to bother Shiffrin, who won the first run by .23 seconds. She took a measured amount of risk second run to take the overall win by .76 seconds. 

“I’m incredibly happy,” said Shiffrin. “I had so much fun skiing today. It was really my best skiing both runs. Nothing less than the best is going to work. I was taking all the risks I needed and made it to the finish. It’s just an amazing feeling when it’s good enough.” 

Petra Vlhova of Slovakia was second in the Snow Queen Trophy slalom with Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden third. 

The result brings Shiffrin just one race shy of former Stifel U.S. Alpine Team teammate Lindsey Vonn’s record of 82 World Cup wins, which would tie Shiffrin with the winningest woman alpine skier of all time. Ingemar Stenmark’s World Cup record is also in her sights at 86 wins. With another race on the Sljeme slalom track tomorrow and five wins in the last five races, Shiffrin is on a roll. Only two women ski racers have won more races in a row than Shiffrin: Vreni Scheider of Switzerland won eight in the 1988-89 season and Germany’s Katja Seizinger won six in 1997.

Katie Hensien, Zoe Zimmermann, Nina O’Brien, Paula Moltzan, Lila Lapanja and Ava Sunshine did not qualify for a second run. 

The women race again in Zagreb tomorrow, Thursday, at 9 a.m. ET. Stream it live on InFront’s skiandsnowboard.live. 

RESULTS
Women’s slalom