Shiffrin leads slalom, closes in on record World Cup win 87

ARE, Sweden (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin took a big lead in the opening run of a women’s World Cup slalom Saturday as she positioned herself for a record-setting 87th career win.

Shiffrin led second-place home favorite Anna Swenn Larsson by 0.69 seconds. Swiss skier Wendy Holdener trailed by 0.94 in third and was the last skier to finish within a second of Shiffrin’s lead.

“It’s nice to race today. After such an incredible day yesterday, I feel like no pressure,“ Shiffrin said.

The second run was later Saturday.

Shiffrin can break a tie with Ingemar Stenmark on the all-time overall winners list — between men and women. The Swede competed in the 1970s and 80s.

Shiffrin matched Stenmark’s mark of 86 wins by winning a giant slalom Friday.

A victory would give Shiffrin the outright record 12 years to the day after her first race on the World Cup, as a 15-year-old at a GS in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.

On Saturday, Shiffrin was the fifth starter in the opening run and gained time on then-leader Holdener at each check point.

The American opened her mouth widely after finishing, apparently surprised by the margin of her lead.

“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,” Shiffrin said.

“Yesterday was such a big day, it’s hard to imagine another day happening like that. So many things can happen, especially in slalom … so I’m not taking that for granted.”

Shiffrin has already locked up her fifth overall championship and the discipline titles in slalom and GS.

The race took place at a venue where many key moments in Shiffrin’s career happened. At the Swedish lakeside resort, she earned her first World Cup win in 2012 and took slalom gold at the 2019 world championships to become the first skier to win the world title in one discipline four times in a row.

However, Are was also the place where she sustained a knee injury that kept her away from the slopes for two months in the 2015-16 season, and where she was due to race again in March 2020 after the death of her father the previous month, but those races were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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