Industry News
Mikaela Shiffrin won the fourth reindeer of her career in Levi, Finland after winning a record-breaking 41st slalom race in Saturday’s FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup meeting.
Shiffrin was trailing Petra Vlhova after the first run by 0.13-seconds, but her rival crashed out in the second attempt, leaving Shiffrin to coast to victory by 1.78 seconds from Wendy Holdener. That victory means Shiffrin is now the outright leader of any skier in slalom wins, surpassing the tally of 40 achieved by the legendary Ingemar Stenmark.
“I wasn’t thinking about that at all today,” Mikaela said of the overall World Cup slalom victory record. She was tied at 40 with the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark coming into Levi. “I was just trying to push it today.”
Traditionally, winners in Levi are presented with reindeer and Shiffrin now has four for her collection. Mikaela’s previous three reindeer are named Rudolph (2013), Sven (2016) and Mr. Gru (2018). She has yet to name her fourth reindeer but notes that it will be “sentimental” and she will announce it on her social media soon.
Up next, the women travel to Vermont for next week’s HomeLight Killington Cup with giant slalom and slalom events.
“The season has started in both GS and slalom, and I feel good with both events, so now we’re rolling and it’s a nice place to be,” Mikaela said. “I’m on track…and I know what I have to do. So this is like a dry run for the rest of the season and Killington, and now I can just go back (to Killington) and enjoy that.”
