Next season, Mikaela Shiffrin will historically break the milestone of 100 World Cup victories. However, he will not be seen in the 2024-2025 season.
Alpine skiing’s number one star Mikaela Shiffrin has made a tough decision. He told about it in Salzburg, Austria, at his sponsor’s event, reported the news, among other things SVT and ESPN.
Shiffrin experienced the worst outing of his career in January in the downhill race in Cortina d’Ampezzo. A fall on the 2026 Olympic slope caused injuries to Shiffrin’s knee.
Shiffrin had to be sidelined from the slopes for six weeks. It cost him the sixth overall World Cup victory of his career. He received the winner’s crystal ball last season “only” for slalom.
In addition, Shiffrin’s partner, the Norwegian star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde already fell violently before. He was seriously injured in January in Wengen, Switzerland. There is no information about Kilde’s return to the competition slopes, because his rehabilitation has experienced setbacks.
Now Shiffrin has decided not to jump at all this season. He would also like to continue with it, but has not yet decided if the sport will ever return to his program.
So Shiffrin focuses on slalom, giant slalom and super-G. Shiffrin, known especially as a master of technical sports, has won a whopping 60 World Cup races in slalom. There are also four wins and seven podium places from the jump.
She had even had discussions with her boyfriend about ending their alpine skiing career.
– We have had that conversation. We’ve both had moments when we’ve thought “I’m so tired of this, it’s time”.
Shiffrin said that there are moments when she is motivated, and sometimes there are more doubts.
Now he is “almost always motivated”. Therefore, the goal is the 100th career victory in the World Cup. Next season it is likely. Shiffrin has 97 wins. In February 2023, he broke the Swedish By Ingemar Stenmark 86 win record.
During the training season, Shiffrin has spent more time than usual in the weight room, because he had reduced the load due to his injury, and now he wants his strength level back.
Inevitably, Shiffrin won’t be counting the races any less than before. He plans to miss as few super-G races as possible.
– I personally don’t care about a hundred wins, but I think it would be a monumental moment in sports.
So Shiffrin stated that he wants to bring as much advertising and visibility to his sport as possible, so a hundred wins would be a nice milestone.
When he broke Stenmark’s record, he downplayed his achievement as much as possible. It had made people think he wasn’t interested.
Now, Shiffrin and his team have already brainstormed ideas on how to make the hundredth win more meaningful than just a number.
“Whether I win 99 races, 100, 105 or whatever, I’ve still gotten so much from the sport.
– And to be honest, the fact that I’m still doing this feels selfish, because what can I achieve anymore. But I still want to do this.