Mikaela Shiffrin gets 98th World Cup win (8th reindeer) to tie legend

Mikaela Shiffrin extended her records with a 98th career Alpine skiing World Cup victory and an eighth reindeer for winning the annual slalom in Levi, Finland.

Shiffrin, 29, prevailed by 79 hundredths of a second over Austrian Katharine Liensberger combining times from two runs in the second race of the season on Saturday. She led by a sizable six tenths over German Lena Dürr after the first run.

Shiffrin has won her last five slalom starts dating to last January, her first win streak in the discipline since 2019. She sat out one slalom in February due to leg injuries from a downhill crash.

Shiffrin rebounded from this season’s opening race on Oct. 26, when she led after a giant slalom after the first run, then had the 27th-fastest second run out of 28 finishers and placed fifth overall.

ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP: Broadcast Schedule

Shiffrin has 12 more World Cups than any other Alpine skier in history. On Saturday, she matched 1990s German speed skating legend Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann’s total of 98 individual World Cup wins.

The record for all Winter Olympic disciplines is 114 individual World Cup victories — held by Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen, who retired in 2018 as the all-time Winter Olympic medals leader with 15.

Also Saturday, Shiffrin extended her records with an eighth World Cup slalom win at one venue and a World Cup race victory in a 13th consecutive season.

The winner in Levi traditionally receives a reindeer that they get to name. The reindeer stays in Finland. Shiffrin named her previous reindeer: Rudolph, Sven, Mr. Gru, Ingemar, Sunny, Lorax, Grogu and Balto.

“You never forget (about the reindeer),” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about it on the run.”

Liensberger, who in 2021 snapped Shiffrin’s streak at four consecutive world championships in slalom, earned her best World Cup result since March 2022.

The men race a slalom in Levi on Sunday.

The women have another slalom next Saturday in Gurgl, Austria. Regardless of how Shiffrin finishes there, she will go into the following stop in Killington, Vermont, with a chance to reach 100 World Cup wins. Killington hosts a giant slalom and a slalom on Nov. 30-Dec. 1.

Shiffrin’s primary slalom rival for the last several years — Olympic gold medalist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia — is still sidelined from right knee surgery last winter. Vlhova’s team announced this week that she plans to return to on-snow training by the start of December.

2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup Results — Levi

1. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) — 1:47.20
2. Katharina Liensberger (AUT) — +0.79
3. Lena Duerr (GER) — +0.83
4. Anna Swenn Larsson (SWE) — +1.28
5. Camille Rast (SUI) — +1.31
6. Zrinka Ljutic (CRO) — +1.33
7. Melanie Meillard (SUI) — +1.43
8. Paula Moltzan (USA) — +1.51
9. Emma Aicher (GER) — +1.54
10. Laurence St-Germain (CAN) — +2.25