Nobody had ever reached 100 victories in the Alpine Skiing World Cup before. The legendary Ingemar Stenmark, the previous record holder, stopped at 86 victories.
What's more, to achieve 100 World Cup victories before the age of 30 is downright legendary. That's what Mikaela Shiffrin has just achieved.
Superlatives are in short supply when it comes to the American superstar. Since December 20th, 2012, the date of her first World Cup success in a slalom in Are, Sweden, at the age of 17, she has been piling up victories, globes, world and Olympic titles, all the while seeing several generations of women skiers come and go. All of whom have been forced to bow to the queen.
Statistically, there is so much to be said for her domination. With 63 slaloms won out of her 100 victories, no one has ever won so much in a single discipline. In just one season (2018/2019), she even claimed 17 successes, an unprecedented feat. No one else has won a title in six World Championships in a row. And we could go on and on...
But what's truly astonishing, apart from her success, is that she can find the motivation to keep going, again and again. There's no need for grand speeches, she finds simple reasons, as she told the Olympic Games website at the start of the 2023/24 season, when she had already broken Stenmark's record. "It's not a motivation to win, but to move forward."
That's what it took for her to return to the top after a long period of doubt, two seasons (2020 and 2021) without a Crystal Globe, the second of which saw her claim just three World Cup victories. This could have meant a downward slope, but she found the motivation she needed at the World Championships, and in four races, she scored four podiums, including a title in the combined to continue her series. This was undoubtedly a pivotal point in her career.
Since the World Championships in February 2021, she has amassed no fewer than 32 World Cup victories, including 14 in the 2022/23 season alone. And this despite the fact that last season she missed no fewer than 11 races between January and March due to a heavy fall in Cortina. Once again, it was thought that her season was over, wrongly so.
Nevertheless, it has to be said that she has been fairly injury-free during her career. The aforementioned injury, another more serious one that totally truncated her 2015/16 season, and that's about it. She has now at least three World Cups victories in 13 consecutive seasons, yet another record that is unlikely to be ever broken.
However, she has been through several eras, starting with close or distant confrontations with Lindsey Vonn, Maria Hofl-Riesch, Anna Fenninger and Tina Maze, before crossing swords with Lara Gut-Behrami, Federica Brignone and Petra Vlhova. All of these skiers have won the overall World Cup rankings at least once, have a rich record of achievement, but not as impressive as that of the American, and above all, in terms of longevity, are still a long way off Shiffrin.
Longevity is undoubtedly the most impressive thing about her. Being considered an alpine skiing prodigy, succeeding at a young age and maintaining an extraordinary level of performance is her real strength. Young stars like Janica Kostelic and Anja Parson won early and a lot, but after the age of 25, they faded.
Despite her continued success, questions about retirement inevitably arise. While her partner, fellow skiing star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, will not be in action this season due to a serious injury, she admitted to AFP that she and the Norwegian had both thought about putting the skis away.
It will happen, sooner or later, but it is certain that the heights she has set will be unattainable for years to come. The mark she has left is as great as her talent and Mikaela Shiffrin is now undisputably the greatest of all time.