Mikaela Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race on Saturday to break the overall record set by skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark.
The American triumphed in the slalom in Åre, Sweden, to become the sport’s all-time winningest athlete.
“Pretty hard to comprehend,” Shiffrin said in her post-race interview. “My brother and sister-in-law are here. I didn’t know they were coming so that makes it so special.”
Shiffrin was in dominant form despite the history at stake. She beat Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by 0.92 seconds, while Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson finished third.
The win comes on the same resort where she triumphed in her first ever World Cup race back in December 2012.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was overcome with emotion after breaking the record which has stood since 1989.
“The best feeling is to ski on the second run because you have a lead and you have to be smart” she added.
“I just wanted to be fast too and ski the second run like its own race. I did it exactly how I wanted and that’s amazing.
“To the whole team and all the people who have helped me this whole season and whole career, all these people reaching out now after all these years, it’s pretty incredible. I just want to say thank you for that.”
Breaking Stenmark’s record caps off a remarkable season for Shiffrin given that she did not pick up a single medal from five races at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and failed to finish in three of them.
She has now taken 13 World Cup victories so far this season, four short of her own record of 17 set in 2018-19.
On Friday, the 27-year-old equaled Stenmark’s record with her 86th World Cup win and said she was humbled to be level with the icon.
“It is the greatest honor of my career to be mentioned in the same sentence as Ingemar Stenmark. Incomprehensible and truly unforgettable,” she tweeted Friday.
CNN’s Wayne Sterling contributed reporting.
