Shiffrin ends season with record 21st GS win

SOLDEU (Andorra)— In a fitting end to an incredible season that saw her become the most successful skier of all time, United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin duly won her 21st career Giant Slalom at the World Cup finals in Andorra.

After romping the first run by a wide margin Shiffrin eventually beat Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund by a wafer thin 0.06sec with Canadian Valerie Grenier rounding out the podium.

In bright sunshine with temperatures at 3C the skiing conditions were perfect for the 330m vertical drop on hard snow from a 2,167m altitude starters gate, high enough to retain some natural snow.

The victory moved Shiffrin past Vreni Schneider, a week after matching the Swiss skier’s mark of 20 World Cup GS victories. The American has won seven of the last eight events and took the GS world title last month.

The overall record, between men and women, is held by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 46 giant slaloms in the 1970s and 80s.

“I don’t know, you guys tell me,” Shiffrin said with a laugh when she was asked about possible next records in a course-side interview, conducted by her boyfriend and World Cup downhill champion, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

“Just keep moving right along,” added Shiffrin, who secured the overall, slalom and GS titles this season and extended the all-time record for most career wins to 88.

After Kilde asked her about plans to improve for next season, Shiffrin quipped: “We can discuss that later, in private.”

Shiffrin also set a personal best of 2,206 World Cup points from 31 starts this season, two points more than her tally from 2018-19, when she competed in 26 races.

Only one skier secured more points in a single season: Slovenian great Tina Maze ended her 2012-13 campaign on 2,414.

The result also marked Shiffrin’s record 138th career World Cup podium, moving her one ahead of former teammate Lindsey Vonn’s mark of 137.

But for Shiffrin, her personal favorite record came nine years ago.

“Honestly, I think probably being the youngest Olympic slalom champion. That was really the only record that I actually ever wanted, like really shot for,” said Shiffrin, who was 18 when she won her first Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“It happened quite some time ago, and I´m still motivated, I still had that nervous feeling up there. I was so nervous at the start … because you want to do well. And it doesn´t matter about records, it´s just you want to do well.”

With the sun beaming down on the Avet course, Shiffrin held on to her a first-run lead to edge Thea Louise Stjernesund by 0.06 seconds. The Norwegian earned her first career podium.

Canadian skier Valerie Grenier was third, trailing Shiffrin by 0.20.

Three of the top seven ranked racers did not finish their first runs, as Petra Vlhova, who won Saturday´s slalom, Federica Brignone and Olympic champion Sara Hector all missed a gate.

Two-time former world champion Tessa Worley placed 11th in what she said would be the last race of her career. The French GS specialist has won 16 races and three season titles, most recently last year.