Mikaela Shiffrin takes the quest for her 100th career World Cup victory to North America.
The American skier could even get the one victory she needs to reach the milestone in what is a home race for her in Killington, Vermont, where a giant slalom and a slalom will take place next weekend.
“I don’t think it’s impossible, but so many things have to go right,” Shiffrin said Saturday in the Austrian Alps after taking her record-extending 99th victory – the second slalom of the season.
Shiffrin, who is from Colorado, honed her skills at Burke Mountain Academy, near Killington.
“From the outside it seems easy, or it seems like that’s how it’s supposed to happen. But, just like today, it takes so much energy to bring out my top skiing skills, so it is certainly not easy,” said the American about approaching the historic victory on home snow.
After the events in Killington, the 16-day North American leg of the World Championships continues with two giant slaloms in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, and a super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“I guess there’s some pressure around it, but I’ll try to ignore that,” said Shiffrin, who also won the first slalom of the season in Levi, Finland, a week ago.
“Anyway, when it happens, it’s great. If it doesn’t happen, there’s nothing to cry about in the grand scheme. But I hope to deliver a very good performance for the home crowd.”
No other skier, male or female, has won more than 86 World Cup races. Shiffrin posted the best score when she overtook Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in March 2023.
Shiffrin has triumphed in the last six slaloms she has competed in, including all four since returning from a knee injury following a downhill run in January.
On Saturday, the two-time Olympic champion maintained her lead in the first run, beating Italian prodigy Lara Colturi, who starts for Albania, by 0.55 seconds and Swiss skier Camille Rast by 0.57 seconds. They both achieved their first podium result in their careers.
In the first run, Shiffrin was not clear as he tackled the steep slope of the Kirchenkar course, but he gained time on all competitors with a near-flawless trajectory towards the finish.
“It’s quite a strange surface, cold and dry. It’s hard to be clean on skis. So I felt a little weird in places,” Shiffrin said.
“But in the end I kept pushing forward, just stayed on top of it and pushed to the finish. I find it quite challenging in this condition to find the right setup so that you feel clean and feel like you can let go of the skis.”
Shiffrin acknowledged that she was “very nervous at the top” before the start of her second run.
“I wasn’t sure how I would feel with the surface. It got darker. Sometimes, when I’m not confident with the feeling under my feet, I take too much time to make the turn,” she said.
“I heard all the women going down and their teams cheering, and that always means they had a really good run. And it just kept getting darker,” Shiffrin said, adding that she “didn’t think it would happen today.”
Shiffrin initially extended her lead to more than seven-tenths of a second and only lost a fraction of that in the final two sections.
“It’s really satisfying to have a great descent on this slope. What a beautiful day,” she said.
Sharing the podium with two young competitors who achieved their first top-three result had Shiffrin recalling the time she achieved her first career podium – in a slalom at another Austrian venue, Lienz, in December 2011.
“It was incredible, with Marlies [Raich] and Tine [Maze]” recalls Shiffrin, who started the race with starting number 40 but finished third.
“It was such a special feeling, like ‘Oh my God, I’m here, and I should be here, and I belong here.’ It’s just the beginning of your career. And the future knows no limit. That’s just such a wonderful feeling.”
Swiss skier Wendy Holdener, who was second after the opening run, dropped to fourth, and Shiffrin’s teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.10 seconds behind in sixth.
Olympic champion Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin’s biggest rival in slalom, has not yet returned to racing after undergoing knee surgery last season.
Gurgl was a new venue at the Women’s World Cup after hosting a men’s race last season. The resort in the Austrian Alps is just a 15 km drive from Sölden, where the traditional season opener took place four weeks ago.
On Sunday the men will compete in a slalom on the same hill.