Mikaela Shiffrin's Record Run

A ski racing family

Mikaela Shiffrin was born in Vail, Colorado, to parents who had both raced on skis. She grew up on the slopes in Colorado and New Hampshire and attended a ski academy in Vermont. At 14 she won slalom and giant slalom at an international youth event in Italy against skiers from 40 nations.

She made her name in slalom, the most technical race, with tight gates and quick turns. In 2014, at 18, she became the youngest Olympic slalom champion in history.

Catching a legend

For decades the record for World Cup race wins belonged to Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark, with 86. Shiffrin chased it with remarkable consistency, winning in slalom, giant slalom and even speed events. In 2019 she won 17 World Cup races in a single season, a record.

In March 2023 she won her 87th race and moved past Stenmark. He was generous about it, saying she was far better than he had been and that he could never have been so good in every discipline.

Crashes and comebacks

The years since have not been easy. A crash in Cortina in January 2024 hurt her left leg, and in November 2024 a fall in Killington left her with a puncture wound to the abdomen. She came back both times.

On 23 February 2025, in a slalom at Sestriere, Italy, she became the first alpine skier ever to reach 100 World Cup wins. She opened the next season with a run of slalom victories and finished it with 110 wins.

Gold again in 2026

At the Milano Cortina Olympic Games in February 2026, Shiffrin missed the medals in her other events, then won the slalom by 1.50 seconds. It was her third Olympic gold, twelve years after her first.

That made her the first American skier to win two Olympic slalom titles. Her record shows the value of patience: slalom races are decided by hundredths of a second, and she has kept finding them for more than a decade.

What makes a slalom skier fast

Slalom gates sit close together, so the skier turns almost constantly. The fastest racers keep their skis carving cleanly on their edges instead of skidding, and they look several gates ahead to plan a smooth line.

Shiffrin has long been known for training the basics of the turn. That focus, repeated for years, is a big part of why she wins on so many different hills and snow conditions.

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