Shiffrin moves one win away from Stenmark

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin has dominated a slalom for her 85th career victory to move within one of the World Cup record set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.

Shiffrin can match Stenmark’s 86 wins in another slalom at the same Czech venue of Spindleruv Mlyn on Sunday after a spectacular week.

The 27-year-old had shared the women’s record of 82 wins with former US teammate Lindsey Vonn before triumphing at back-to-back giant slaloms in Italy this week and adding her third straight win on Saturday.

The American overcame a mistake early in her second run as she posted the fastest times in both legs to beat Germany’s Lena Durr of Germany by 0.60 seconds.

“I knew it would take some risk and there’s a chance that I don’t finish at all, but I have to do my best turns to have a chance because these women are so strong,” said Shiffrin, who raced at the resort near the Czech-Polish border where she had made her World Cup debut as a 15-year-old almost 12 years ago.

Swiss skier Wendy Holdener was 1.31 behind in third, followed by Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova of Slovakia in fourth.

Shiffrin has won five of the eight slaloms this season and extended her lead in the discipline standings over Holdener to 175 points. She could wrap up the title if she leads by at least 200 points after Sunday’s race.

Overall, the American has won 11 races this season. Only twice in her career has she won more races in a single season – 12 in 2017-18 and a record 17 in 2018-19.

If she matches the record on Sunday, Shiffrin will have to wait until after the world championships on French snow in Courchevel and Meribel from February 6-18 to top the mark in subsequent World Cup outings.