Mikaela Shiffrin equals Ingemar Stenmark's record for wins

MADRID, 10 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The American skier Mikaela Shiffrin further enlarged her legend this Friday by conquering the giant disputed in Are (Sweden) and equaling the absolute record of victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup that was held by the Swede Ingemar Stenmark.

It seemed a matter of time before the American, after surpassing the historical mark in the competition at the women's level, the 82 wins of her compatriot Lindsey Vonn, would do the same with that of Stenmark, who added all her successes between 1974 and 1989.

Shiffrin has managed to reach the Swedish myth in just eleven years, since he premiered his record in 2012, at just 17 years old and, as fate would have it, also in Are, although then in a slalom. After coming close to equaling Stenmark in the last tests, he put an end to the country of the Scandinavian dominating the giant, whose general he also won.

The American, who will turn 28 next Monday, earned her 86th World Cup win in a great first descent, which she dominated with a record of 55.16, practically unattainable for all her rivals except for Canadian Valerie Grenier, the only who was also able to drop below 56 seconds (55.74), but already falling behind by more than half a second.

In the second round, Shiffrin was not so excellent, also favored by the bad descent of Grenier who was left out of the podium. The one from Colorado was sixth, enough to win with a total time of 1:54.64, 64 hundredths ahead of the Italian Federica Brignone and almost a second better than the Swedish Sara Hector, who completed the podium.

Now, Shiffrin will have the opportunity this Saturday to overcome Stenmark in the slalom that Are will host again, a modality in which she is a specialist with 52 of her 86 wins. The other 20 are in Giants, five in Super Gs and Parallels, three in Downhill and one in Combined.