Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her 81st career Alpine Skiing World Cup victory after winning the first of two straight slaloms near the Croatian capital, Zagreb. For the American, this is the fifth consecutive and overall seventh victory since the beginning of the season.
With it, she came within just one success of her compatriot Lindsey Vonn in the battle for second place in the all-time ranking for the number of World Cup victories. The leader in the ranking is the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who has 86 wins.
At Crveni Spust today, Mikaela Shiffrin flew across the course in the first run and secured a lead of 0.23 seconds over Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson, who was overtaken by Petra Vlhova in the second run. However, the strength of the Slovakian was not enough to fight Mikaela Shiffrin, who gave the fourth best time in the second run, adding another 0.21 seconds to her lead over Petra Vlhova, which after the first pass of the course was 0.55.
One step away from the honorable ladder was the Swiss Wendy Holdener, who finished 0.17 sec behind Anna Swenn-Larsson in the dispute for third place. The top five in the sixth slalom of the season in the World Cup was closed by the Slovenian Ana Bucik, who was 2.36 sec behind Mikaela Shiffrin in the final.
With her seventh win of the season, Mikaela Shiffrin increased her lead at the top of the general standings, where with 975 points she is 389 ahead of Petra Vlhova. Third with a handicap of 480 is the two-time winner from the start of the campaign Wendy Holdener.
In the battle for the small crystal globe, with four wins in six starts, Mikaela Shiffrin leads with 525 points and a lead of 105 over Wendy Holdener. The third is Petra Vlhova, who is still winless on the season.
The women’s World Cup season continues tomorrow with the second slalom in Zagreb. In it, Mikaela Shiffrin will have her first chance to equalize Lindsey Vonn in the number of World Cup victories.