US ski star on the hunt for records: Shiffrin and the 100 sound barrier: “Greatest of all time”

Mikaela Shiffrin does everything she can to avoid thinking about that magical 100. And even if she succeeds in almost everything on the ski slopes, it is of course impossible not to be asked about it before the North American races. The exceptional athlete is the first person to break the sound barrier of 100 victories in the Alpine World Cup. And that too at the home events on the weekend in Killington. Hollywood couldn’t have come up with a cheesier script.

After Shiffrin has already won the first slaloms of the winter in Levi and Gurgl, hardly anyone doubts that the 100 will take place in the US state of Vermont. There is a giant slalom on Saturday (6 p.m. and 9 p.m./CET/Eurosport and ZDF livestream), and the next day with the same start times for the slalom – Shiffrin’s flagship discipline.

Deep stacking before the home event

“It’s not impossible,” said the 29-year-old Shiffrin recently when asked about the chances of a round victory anniversary in front of the home crowd. “But a lot of things have to come together. I don’t take that for granted.”

On the one hand, this is of course true, but on the other hand, it is also very deep. Because if Shiffrin has shown anything over the past decade, it’s that she can be the fastest anywhere. And he kept stringing together victories as if it were the most normal thing in the world, most recently around six slalom successes in a row.

Neureuther’s praise and fantastic statistics

“You can’t think of anything anymore, it’s unbelievable. She is by far the greatest of all time,” said former Alpine star Felix Neureuther to the German Press Agency. “There are no limits for her. I trust her to do anything. I never thought that someone would be able to celebrate 100 victories in the World Cup. And she will remain the only one – I can’t imagine it ever happening again there will be someone like that.”

Shiffrin’s World Cup stats are phenomenal:

With 99 victories, she has long since left Sweden’s ski icon Ingemar Stenmark (86) and her compatriot Lindsey Vonn (82) – who is planning a comeback – behind her. With 154 podium places so far, she is only missing a top 3 result to beat Stenmark at the top of this all-time record. Shiffrin has made 273 World Cup starts so far. That means she finished on the podium in more than half of her races and won more than a third. In her flagship discipline, slalom, she took 62 victories and won in more than half of her starts; She made it onto the podium in 86 of 114 races.

Races have been held in Killington, where the women’s World Cup team stops at the weekend, since 2016. In seven slaloms, the winner was Shiffrin six times. “I’m trying to focus and do my best,” announced the American.

Dürr is impressed by Shiffrin’s strong nerves

Of course, the pressure will be great on the winter sports heroine who has taken skiing in the USA to another level. And it was always a special additional task for Shiffrin to deal with it. For years it happened to her – especially in Killington – that she would throw up between two runs because of excitement and nervousness.

She has now learned to deal with it better. “It’s admirable when you’re so in the spotlight and so in the spotlight that you still stick to yourself,” said Shiffrin’s German rival Lena Dürr recently on Bayerischer Rundfunk. “She learned to deal with it very early on and to find a way for herself. Then she was able to cope with it in the moments when there was a lot of pressure on her from outside.”

Shiffrin with an always-forward mentality

Shiffrin celebrated her first World Cup success in December 2012 at the age of 17, and just a few months later she won her first of seven World Cup gold medals. At the age of 18 she became Olympic champion in Sochi. “What fascinates me about her is that she was so good at a young age and yet she continues to motivate and reinvent herself. She could have said long ago: I’ve won everything and I’m quitting. But she keeps improving.” , praised Neureuther.

Now Shiffrin, who is accompanied through the winter by a large team of trainers and supervisors including her mother Eileen, is facing the 100-win barrier. And it shouldn’t slow down after that either.

Rivals between frustration and admiration

Her rivals are divided. On the one hand, such dominance gets on your nerves. “There are these exceptional talents in every sport and at every time. Then it’s difficult when you always have to compete against someone like that,” said Dürr, who was only able to relegate Shiffrin to second place in a slalom once and like all the other goal runners is itching to ruin the home event for the American. “But it’s also cool to see that someone can compete so consistently at the highest level for so long.”