Mikaela Shiffrin won Saturday’s season-opening women’s World Cup slalom in Levi, Finland, earning her 48th career slalom victory and 75th World Cup victory overall. Shiffrin’s victory pads her record for the most victories in a single competition by any skier, and it also saw her surpass a record that had previously been held by Lindsey Vonn.
After placing third in her opening run, the American Shiffrin moved to the top with the fastest second run, beating Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden by .16 of a second. Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová, the slalom Olympic champion in 2022, finished four hundredths of a second back to place third. Lena Dürr of Germany and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland rounded out the top five.
Shiffrin’s 48th career victory also marked her 67th podium in the slalom, giving her the most victories of any skater in women’s singles competition. The record had previously been held by Vonn, whose mark of 66 has now been surpassed.
“I’m really happy with the feeling today,” Shiffrin said in a report by the Associated Press. “I’ve been racing for so many years now and every single race that I won had a special meaning.”
With her 75th win in World Cup competition, Shiffrin currently ranks third on the all-time wins list, behind only Vonn (82) and the legendary Ingemar Stenmark (86). Saturday also marked yet another triumph for either Shiffrin or Vlhová in the season opener, as the two have traded victories in the event every year since 2015. The last skier outside of those two to win the season opener was Tina Maze in 2014.
Saturday’s slalom came after unseasonably warm weather had forced the four previous women’s World Cup races to be cancelled. The original season opener, which had been slated for Oct. 22 in Sölden, Austria, has been rescheduled for late December in Semmering.
Read More: Mikaela Shiffrin triumphs in slalom for 75th career World Cup win, breaking Lindsey Vonn’s
