Mikaela Shiffrin breaks Lindsey Vonn's World Cup record to become the queen of alpine skiing in record time

• Mikaela Shiffrin officially owns the record for most alpine World Cup victories by a woman.
• The 27-year-old won slalom in Kronplatz, Italy, Tuesday to earn her 83rd WC win, surpassing Lindsey Vonn.
• Shriffin needed 4 fewer years than Vonn to reach 82 wins, and now she's headed for the all-time record.

Mikaela Shriffin is in sole possession of the record for most alpine World Cup victories by a woman.

And she broke the record in record time.

The 27-year-old matched the legendary Lindsey Vonn at 82 wins with a giant slalom victory in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on January 8. Just over two weeks later, she earned No. 83 in Kronplatz, Italy — where she'd won one previous World Cup — in giant slalom to break Vonn's record.

Here's the clip of her ninth win of the season.

—FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) January 24, 2023

 

But perhaps even more impressive than overtaking the record itself — not to mention one previously owned by a titan of the sport — is the speed with which Shriffin was able to claim it as her own.

The Vail, Colorado, native is six years younger than Vonn was when she earned her 82nd victory back in 2018. Further, Shriffin managed to meet — and then exceed — that mark with three fewer years of competition under her belt.

Currently in her 11th World Cup season, Shriffin made her World Cup debut in 2011; Vonn set the record at 82 during her 14th season.

Check out the visualization of their respective paths to unprecedented World Cup win totals:

Now that her draw with Vonn is firmly in the rearview mirror, Shiffrin is eyeing yet another monumental landmark in the history of her sport: the all-time record for alpine skiing World Cup victories, regardless of gender. Swedish icon Ingemar Stenmark has held the record at 86 wins since he stepped away from World Cup competition in 1989 — almost exactly six years before Shiffrin was born.

More than three decades later, the American two-time Olympic gold medalist is rapidly approaching the Swede's mark. With a little less than half of the season's events still to come, Shiffrin could very well earn three more World Cup wins to match Stenmark's record and further add to her nine-victory total on the year.

With one more after that, she'd capture the sport's ultimate crown to cement her legacy as the greatest of her generation — and arguably of all time.