Alpine skiing Shiffrin gets record 100th World Cup win

SestrierE, Italy – American Mikaela Shiffrin won a record-extending 100th Alpine skiing World Cup victory on Feb 23 in the Italian resort of Sestriere.

Shiffrin won the slalom, finishing 0.61 seconds ahead of second-placed Croatian Zrinka Ljutic, to become the first skier, male or female, to reach triple digits in World Cup race victories.

Her compatriot Paula Moltzan finished third thanks to an excellent second run, while world champion Camille Rast crashed out in her first run.

“Everybody’s been so nice and so supportive. All of my teammates and competitors and coaches and the whole World Cup. I’m so grateful,” a tearful Shiffrin said.

“I think it’s pretty special to share it with Paula, my teammate. I could hear everybody cheering from the start when she went. I thought, ‘Okay. It’s like a day of training. We just keep pushing’. And she pushes, and I push. And we made it achievable.”

Shiffrin’s hunt for her 100th career World Cup win was put on hold after she crashed during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, in November and suffered a puncture in her abdomen.

She returned to racing at the end of January and won a record-equalling 15th career world championship medal earlier in February in Saalbach, where she and downhill champion Breezy Johnson struck gold in the new women’s team combined event.

The 29-year-old had appeared slightly off the pace in her World Cup return, finishing 25th in the Sestriere giant slalom on Feb 21 and failing to make the cut in the same category on Feb 22.

“Today, a lot of things had to go right for me and actually wrong for some others. Camille, on the first run, was just so fast. So a lot of things had to go in my direction. But in the end,