Over the course of just 12 years, Mikaela Shiffrin has accomplished a great deal, going from a 15-year-old with extraordinary skill to the most decorated female skier in history.
In her 245th race on the World Cup circuit—the global competition for the world’s best skiers—the American skier set a record with her 86th victory on Friday. Just a few weeks after surpassing the women’s record of 82 wins held by her teammate Lindsey Vonn, she moved into a tie with the legendary Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden.
In addition, Shiffrin has won seven world championship championships, seven additional medals from that biannual competition, two gold and one silver medal at the Olympics.
However, her World Cup career, which she shared with Stenmark’s legendary 86 victories, is what has perhaps made her the best skier in history. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Stenmark himself acknowledged as much.
In March 2011, two days shy of turning sixteen, Shiffrin began her World Cup racing career in the Czech Republic. She finished outside the top 30 in a giant slalom with bib number 46, meaning she was ineligible for a rerun.
The following day she competed in her first slalom, the discipline she would go on to dominate with 52 World Cup victories to date, and once again she placed outside the top 30.
December 2011 marked Shiffrin’s maiden podium appearance. She finished third behind childhood idol Marlies Schild and Tina Maze, sporting bib number 40.
One year later on December 20, 2012, in Are, Sweden, she won her first of 86 matches—and counting—that year.
Shiffrin achieved an incredible feat that season by winning the World Cup slalom title. Prior to a thrilling World Cup Finals race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, he added two additional victories. After losing to a rival who turned 18 three days earlier, Maze, who had a record-setting season, lost by a stunning margin in the second inning.
But what has perhaps elevated her to the status of the greatest skier in history is her World Cup career, which she shared with Stenmark’s illustrious 86 victories. Stenmark admitted as much in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Two days before her sixteenth birthday, in March 2011, Shiffrin started her World Cup racing career in the Czech Republic. With bib number 46, she placed outside the top 30 in a giant slalom and was therefore disqualified from a repeat.
She participated in her maiden slalom the next day, a discipline she would go on to master with 52 World Cup wins to her credit, and finished outside the top 30 once more.
It marked the beginning of three consecutive titles. In just her fourth start in the fastest and riskiest discipline, she achieved her first downhill victory in Lake Louise, Canada, during the following season.
Shiffrin set a record in 2019 by winning 17 races, earning 2,204 World Cup points (second only to Maze in the history of skiing), and finishing in the top five in all but one of her 26 events.
She appeared to be headed for a fourth championship in January 2020 after winning two speed races at Bansko, Bulgaria, giving her a 370-point lead. Then there was a family tragedy.