ARE, Sweden (Reuters) – U.S. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is on track for an all-time record 87th World Cup win after leading a women’s slalom in Are, Sweden, with a “pretty perfect” first run on Saturday.
Shiffrin, who equalled Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 wins in a giant slalom on Friday, was 0.69 seconds quicker than Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson down the Stortloppsbacken run.
“I need to do a really good second run as well but I felt pretty perfect on the first run so I’m very happy with that,” said the 27-year-old Shiffrin, who has already won the slalom World Cup crystal globe as well as the giant slalom and overall titles.
“Yesterday was such a big day it’s hard to imagine another day happening like that,” she told Eurosport television.
“So many things can happen, especially in slalom when you’re pushing the limit. You can be off the course in one hundredth of a second, so I’m not taking that for granted. It might not happen but maybe it can happen.”
Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener was in third place, 0.94 adrift of Shiffrin, while Canada’s world champion Laurence St-Germain was sixth.
Shiffrin took the first World Cup victory of her career in Are in 2012.
The American, who has won 12 World Cup races so far this season, broke compatriot Lindsey Vonn’s women’s record of 82 wins in January.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
