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Mikaela Shiffrin won her 78th career World Cup title, winning the giant slalom in Semmering on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old American is now just four points shy of Lindsey Vonn’s record of 82 World Cup victories for women, which was retired in 2019, and is also on track to equal Swedish star Ingmar Steinmark. Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup victories.
The World Cup champion dominated the first round with a leading performance, leading Slovakia’s Petra Verhova by 0.72 seconds and French skier Tessa Wally just 0.01 seconds behind.
Shiffrin, who finished last in the second round, was more cautious and finished sixth, but it was still enough to secure her fourth World Cup title of the season, 0.13 seconds ahead of Verkhova.
“It’s always a little nerve wracking to start a weekend with three races,” Shiffrin said.
“You want to be in the right shape and you can bring the right intensity from the start.
“I feel good today, the second course is difficult to master, but it’s a pleasure to ski here.”
Italian skier Marta Basino finished fourth after the first round, beating Wally to complete the podium and maintain her lead in the discipline standings. Olympic champion Sarah Hector was eighth.
Shiffrin, who also won two slaloms at Levi and Super-G at St. Moritz, now has 675 points in the overall standings, 205 points ahead of Italian speed specialist Sofia Goggia, who did not race at Semmering.
The American is fifth in the subject standings, 80 points behind Basino.
She’ll have the opportunity to close the gap even further when the women’s team takes on a second major slalom on the Semmering slopes on Wednesday, followed by a slalom on Thursday.
rg/smr/bsp
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