Mikaela Shiffrin ties alpine skiing World Cup wins record with 86th victory

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Mikaela Shiffrin's torrid winter continued Friday when she drew within one win of the World Cup all-time record for an alpine skier.

Shiffrin won her 86th career World Cup race Friday in Åre, Sweden, by 0.64 seconds over Federica Brigone of Italy in giant slalom, which tied Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark for the most wins by a male or female alpine skier in history. 

Stenmark accomplished the feat in 1989 at the age of 32, while Shiffrin could do it before her 28th birthday. Her first opportunity to break Stenmark's mark will be Saturday in slalom — an event she's won 52 of her 86 career victories.

Shiffrin needed fewer than 12 years of her professional career to hit the mark, while Stenmark took a little more than 15 years. Stenmark did win in fewer races — 230 versus Shiffrin's 245 — but the database of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation is reportedly missing some information during Stenmark's career in the 1970s and '80s.

Friday's win also tied Swiss skier Vreni Schneider's women's all-time giant slalom record with 20 career World Cup wins.

“It was just a spectacular day,” Shiffrin said. “I just wanted to push and fight for it.”

Shiffrin has been on a tear recently. She's won six total giant slalom races so far this season, and her fifth overall World Cup title and the slalom title. Friday's win was also her fourth straight wire-to-wire win in World Cup giant slaloms since January. She already broke Lindsey Vonn's all-time women's alpine World Cup wins in January and later broke the individual world championship medals in February.

Coincidentally, the location of the race in Åre was also the site of her first career World Cup win in 2012.

"I've had a quite a few different experiences here," Shiffrin said Friday. "I have felt everything you can feel here, so it's special to be back."