(Reuters) – American Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin was heading for a record-extending 84th women’s World Cup win after dominating the first run of a giant slalom in the Italian resort of Kronplatz on Wednesday.
Still fizzing from her record 83rd victory on the same hill on Tuesday, the 27-year-old clocked a time of one minute 00.56 seconds — 0.51 quicker than closest rival Sara Hector of Sweden.
Italy’s Marta Bassino, the first starter, was third fastest with a gap of 0.65 to the leader.
Shiffrin, who now has her sights on the absolute record of 86 wins racked up by Swedish men’s slalom great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and 1980s after moving ahead of compatriot Lindsey Vonn, said she had struggled to sleep with all the excitement.
“I was kind of late back to the hotel for dinner,” she told Eurosport television.
“It was a really nice evening and so nice to see messages from people and so much support and so much excitement about the race. I was definitely looking a lot at all of that and then tried to go to bed and have a good night of sleep.
“But I was awake at midnight, I was awake at three, then I was awake at five. I was hungry all night. I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I’m a mess’.
“Anyway, it’s a beautiful hill again today and the surface is amazing and it was nice course-setting with a lot of active, dynamic skiing. I felt very good with the first run and I’m looking forward to one more run on the hill.”
Victory would take Shiffrin’s career World Cup giant slalom tally to 19 wins, one short of retired Swiss great Vreni Schneider’s women’s record of 20 in the discipline.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
