Mikaela Shiffrin celebrated with a shoulder shake and a beaming smile on Saturday after dominating a slalom and closing in on a 34-year-old World Cup record of 86 victories by one.
The American showed no pressure a day before another slalom in which she equaled the record set by the great Swede Ingemar Stenmark of the 1980s.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get this record. Now I’m so close it’s like I’m just taking a deep breath and enjoying the moments that we’re in right now,” Shiffrin said.
She had shared the women’s record of 82 wins with former teammate Lindsey Vonn before triumphing in back-to-back slaloms in Italy this week, adding the 85th career win on Saturday.
“I always try to think of everything else besides those numbers because they just make me nervous. And I have no reason to be nervous about getting to 86 or 87,” Shiffrin said. “But of course, when everyone asks, I feel under pressure and then I don’t enjoy the races that much.”
Shiffrin enjoyed racing Saturday which marked her third win in five days.
“Today was just a great day. From the moment I woke up I felt good and ready to go. And I was so happy with how I was skiing,” said the American, adding that she was struggling with fatigue.
Mikaela Shiffrin dominated a slalom to her 85th World Cup win of her career on Saturday.
“Sometimes when you’re tired it gets on your nerves because you just don’t have the energy to be nervous,” she said. “Maybe it’s an advantage for me today, but I’ll hardly make it tomorrow before I need a few days off.”
The American held a 0.29 second lead after the opening heat but lost a tenth of the lead after going too far in a couple of corners early in heat two before accelerating and once again setting the fastest time, this time tied with the Croatian skier Leona Popovic to beat Germany’s Lena Dürr by 0.60 seconds.
Shortly after Shiffrin finished the race, third-place finisher Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and second-place finisher Dürr came over to hug her.
“I knew it was going to be a bit of a risk and there’s a chance I might not finish at all, but I have to do my best to have a chance because these women are so strong,” Shiffrin said.
Holdener was third, 1.31 seconds back, followed by slalom Olympic champion Petra Vlhová of Slovakia in fourth and Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan in fifth.
The race took place in the town near the Czech-Polish border where she made her World Cup debut almost 12 years ago as a 15-year-old. Shiffrin also won when the venue last hosted a World Cup race in 2019.
“Wow, I can hear you all so loud. Thanks for the cheering, it’s incredible to drive for this crowd,” she told viewers in a post-race interview.
Shiffrin laid the foundation for her victory with a clean opening run, in which she got off to a fast start and was at least a quarter of a second ahead of her competitors in the first split.
She also gained time over most racers in a tricky passage midway through her run, where the layout of the course allowed for multiple paths to pass through the gates.
“You could ski either way,” Shiffrin said. “At the end of the track I was able to pick up a lot of speed. In the end, I felt really good about my run.”
Shiffrin has won five of the eight slaloms this season and extended her lead over Holdener in the discipline ranking to 175 points. She could complete the title if she leads by at least 200 points after Sunday’s race.
In total, the American has won eleven races this season. Only twice in her career has she won more races in a single season: 12 in 2017-18 and a record-breaking 17 in 2018-19.