Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates taking first place at FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup on March 9, 2019 in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.
Mikaela Shiffrin claimed the world cup crystal globe in slalom several weeks ago, but her reign of dominance in the discipline isn’t over yet.
On Saturday, Shiffrin won her 15th world cup event of the season and became the first skier ever — man or woman — to win that many world cup races in one season. She went into the weekend of racing at Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, tied with Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider, who won 14 in the 1988-89 season.
Shiffrin made Saturday’s race look easy. She led after the first run, finishing in 49.33 seconds. Her next closest competitor, Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, was .37 seconds behind. Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who is now second behind Shiffin in the race for the crystal globe in giant slalom, was in fourth place and 1.33 off Shiffrin’s pace.
Shiffrin finished with a combined time 1 minute, 38.98 seconds. Holdener was .85 seconds behind in second place and Vlhova jumped up a spot to finish in third.
The 23-year-old from Eagle-Vail, Colorado, also raced on Friday and finished third in the giant slalom, narrowly missing out on the chance to grab the crystal globe in that discipline as well. She will have one more chance before the season is over and goes in with a 97-point lead. Shiffrin recently became the fourth woman to win four consecutive overall crystal globes.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
