Mikaela Shiffrin closes in on ‘wonderful’ 100th World Cup win
By Ben Church, CNN
(CNN) — Mikaela Shiffrin has already enjoyed a record-breaking career, but the US ski star now stands just one win away from claiming her 100th World Cup race victory.
The 29-year-old, already the most successful alpine skier of all time, has the chance to reach the impressive total at this weekend’s Stifel Killington Cup in Vermont.
The American is expected to race in both Saturday’s giant slalom and Sunday’s slalom event, but she’s refusing to get ahead of herself.
“It’s not impossible, but so many things have to go right,” Shiffrin said after winning her 99th World Cup race in Austria last week.
“I think, from the outside, it looks easy or it looks like it’s supposed to happen this way, but even today took so much energy to bring out my top skiing.
“So it’s not easy, and everybody’s pushing and catching up. And so I’m not taking that for granted.”
How to watch Shiffrin’s chase for 100
The decisive runs for both events will be aired live in the US on NBC Sports and Peacock.
The second runs for both Saturday’s giant slalom and Sunday’s slalom will begin at 1 p.m. ET on their respective days.
Making history
Becoming the first alpine skier to reach a century of World Cup wins would be the perfect way to end a year which started in difficult circumstances for Shiffrin.
In January, she suffered a high-speed crash during a downhill event in Italy, resulting in six-weeks away from the sport.
She was left with sprained knee ligaments, but Shiffrin previously told CNN Sport she was lucky to escape the incident with minimal damage given the impact the accident inflicted on her body.
“It could have gone a million different ways, but man, I’m thankful that this is the way it went,” she said.
As misfortune would have it, Shiffrin’s partner Aleksander Aamodt Kilde also suffered a serious incident on the slopes just a few weeks before her own accident.
The Norwegian skier was involved in a horror crash during a World Cup downhill race in Switzerland, resulting in the two-time Olympic medalist suffering a dislocated shoulder, two torn shoulder ligaments and a gnarly laceration on his calf that needed urgent surgery due to nerve damage.
The pair supported each other with their respective rehabilitations but, in truth, Kilde still has a long way to go before thinking about a return to the sport.
In October, he announced on Instagram that he would not be racing this season because he needs to undergo another shoulder surgery after suffering from an infection.
Shiffrin, though, now has the chance to make yet more history in her remarkable career.
She will also get the chance to do so in front of a home audience – Shiffrin went to school in Vermont.
“I guess there’s a bit of pressure around it, but I’ll try to ignore that,” she said, per Reuters.
“If it happens, it’s wonderful; if it doesn’t happen, nothing to cry about in the grand scheme. But I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd.”
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