Record 87th World Championship victory Michaela Shiffrin greatest ski racer of all time?
Shiffrin doesn’t think so, despite a flood of congratulations from tennis stars Roger Federer and Iga Swiatek, actress Kate Winslet and other great skiers. Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller.
In fact, Shiffrin laughs at the talk of the GOAT.
“Because all I really see in my mind is an image of a goat or a goat that has passed out. That’s what comes to my mind,” Shiffrin said after surpassing the great Swede Ingemar Stenmark as the best ski racer in the 56-year history of the Alpine Skiing World Cup.
“This image is imprinted in my mind, and the first thing I think of when I hear people say goat, I just laugh.”
She adds that the label “greatest” doesn’t belong to just one skier.
“After all these years of racing and getting to this point, I now understand that no matter what I achieve, people are rooting for who they want to win – for whatever reason,” she said.
“It could be something that has nothing to do with me or nothing to do with Ingemar or Lindsey or Marcel (Hirscher) or Bode or anyone. It’s personal and that’s what’s so great about sports.”
Shiffrin wins Saturday’s slalom in Are in Stenmark’s native Sweden to break a 34-year-old record, comparable to a tennis player who won her 25th major singles title, to surpass the great Australian Margaret Court, who held the record of 24 titles in five decades.
Another comparison highlights Shiffrin’s dominance in her sport. In the time since her first win on December 20, 2012, Shiffrin has won more than twice as many World Cup races as the entire Austrian women’s ski team, with 43 wins.
As Shiffrin turns 28 on Monday, the American is bound to add 87 years to her tally, and there will be other milestones along the way.
“I think she can win over 100” Stenmark stated this in a recent interview with the Associated Press..
“100 or more” was also prediction by former Austrian slalom specialist Marlies Reichone of Shiffrin’s early idols.
The best scores are waiting for Shiffrin and in terms of the number of crystal globes – awards for winning the seasonal discipline or the overall standings.
Having won this season’s overall, slalom and giant slalom titles, Shiffrin expanded her collection to 15 globes. – five less than the Vaughn 20.
Shiffrin, with seven slalom globes, is one short of Vaughn and Stenmark, who each had eight titles in the same discipline – Vonn in downhill, Stenmark in both slalom and giant slalom.
In addition, Shiffrin’s five overall titles lag behind her six-time women’s record set by Annemarie Moser-Proell in the 1970s.
Despite the gender difference, Shiffrin still needs three more to equal fellow Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher, who won eight straight men’s titles from 2012 to 2019.
Outside of World Cup racing, two-time Olympian Shiffrin has nine gold medals and 17 in total from major championships. She won’t be able to add almost two more years to them, with the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, Austria ahead of her, and the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina.
Despite setting many sports records, Shiffrin said she still feels “that anticipation, that nervousness that I want to race.”
“For me, it’s a sign that I’m motivated,” she said. “I want to ski. Every day I wake up and want to do it again and again. It’s not done yet, it’s stronger than ever.”
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Eric Willemsen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eWilmedia
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Source: sports.yahoo.com
