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Shiffrin poised to pass Moser-Proell more than 5 years faster than Vonn

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December 12, 2019, 10:33 am

It was less than five years ago (January of 2015) that Austrian ski-racing legend of the 70s and 80s Annemarie Moser-Proell was all alone at the top of the women’s World Cup career wins list with 62 victories.

Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Shiffrin

Then Vail’s Lindsey Vonn tied and passed her with a dominant weekend in Cortina, Italy. Mikaela Shiffrin of Edwards is now tied with Moser-Proell and can move past her with a good showing this weekend in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Vonn, now retired and a New Jersey resident, was 30 years old at the time she topped Moser-Proell in 2015. Vonn would go on to record another 19 World Cup wins and left the sport after last season with a women’s record of 82 career victories.

During that historic 2015 weekend in Cortina – site of the 2026 Winter Olympics – Edwards superstar Mikaela Shiffrin was just 19 years old but already the owner of 12 World Cup wins. The next month she would win slalom gold at the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships at Beaver Creek; Vonn claimed a bronze in the super-G at that event.

Since 2015, Shiffrin has absolutely owned the sport, especially on the tech side (GS, slalom). She has 50 World Cup wins in that span of time, and at the age of 24 heads into this weekend’s action in St. Moritz tied with Moser-Proell at 62 career wins.

With two slalom victories already this season (Levi and Killington), plus a second-place finish in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, last weekend, Shiffrin is poised to move past Moser-Proell and build on her overall lead as she chases what would be an American record fourth straight World Cup title. Vonn won four overall globes but not all consecutively (Phil Mahre won three straight in the early 80s).

With a 10th-place finish last weekend in the Lake Louise super-G and another 10th in the first of two downhills there, Shiffrin is rounding into form in the speed events.

Last year in St. Moritz, Shiffrin won a super-G and parallel slalom for her fourth and fifth victories of the season on her way to an eventual single-season record of 17 wins. She’s a little behind that pace this season, but it’s early, and Shiffrin can catch up in a hurry.

Given Shiffrin is just a little under six years ahead of Vonn’s victory pace, it’s not at all inconceivable, barring injury, that Shiffrin will sail past Vonn’s all-time women’s record of 82 and even Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 career wins on the men’s side.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.