Recapping Mikaela Shiffrin's Historic Season

FIS Alpine once again reminded us why Mikaela Shiffrin is the GOAT for ski racing, with 8 podiums, 7 wins and 830 points this season.

FIS Alpine wrote, "thanks to these results, Mikaela Shiffrin has clinched her eighth Slalom Crystal Globe, bringing her total to 16! Congratulations again, Mikaela!" Watch a quick highlight reel below.

Let's not forget that the GOAT was injured from a race at the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo in late January, and returned to racing just six weeks later.

Oh yeah, and then she won yet again in Åre, Sweden, for her 8th slalom season title and 96th career world cup crown.

The U.S. Ski Team compiled a list of Mikaela's achievements over her career, so here are some of the highlights from this season:

On January 4, 2023, Mikaela won her 81st World Cup victory and fifth-straight win on tour (across three different disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, and super-G), matching the longest streak for a man or woman in 25 years. Three skiers have won six or more World Cup races in a row: France’s Jean-Claude Killy (two streaks in 1967), Swiss Vreni Schneider (eight in a row in 1988-89) and German Katja Seizinger (1997).

On January 8, 2023, Mikaela surpassed France’s Tessa Worley with her 17th career giant slalom victory, making her solo second most on the all time GS victory list behind Vreni Schneider’s record of 20. On March 19, 2023, Mikaela broke Vreni’s record, grabbing her 21st career giant slalom victory.

Mikaela matched Lindsey Vonn's record with 82 wins when she won a giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on January 8, 2023. Just over two weeks later, on January 24, 2023, she earned no. 83 in Kronplatz, Italy in giant slalom to break Vonn's record.

On March 4th, 2023, Mikaela received her career fifth overall title, surpassing former teammate Lindsey Vonn (4). Among women, only Annemarie Moser-Pröll has more overall titles (six).

On March 10th, 2023, Mikaela matched Ingemar Stenmark with 86 victories in his home country of Sweden (Are).

She also secured her second career GS globe and equalled Vreni Schneider's all time GS win record of 20. On March 19, 2023, Mikaela broke Vreni’s record, winning her 21st career giant slalom victory.

On March 11th, 2023 (two days before her 28th birthday), Mikaela went down in history as the greatest skier of all time, surpassing Stenmark's record with her 87th World Cup win in Stenmark's home turf in Are, Sweden.

Mikaela was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2023, in the 'Pioneer' category.

Mikaela won her first ESPY for “Best Athlete – Women’s Sports” in 2023.

The Times opined that "her ski racing career has been a master class in evading common pitfalls."

These pitfalls were seen to be "ego, injury, complacency and outside distractions," that have derailed others and even ruined careers.

Besides her incredible talent and winning streak to match it, Shiffrin indeed receives glowing recommendations from sponsors and fans alike.

She is, in writing, dedicated, kind, focused, and family-oriented. 

She's America's golden girl. At dinner with my coworkers one night, Shiffrin's popularity became the topic of conversation. She was, of course, my idol growing up as a kid ski racing on the East Coast, and having stood in a crowd of ski groms at the bottom of a course waiting to get our helmets signed, I offhandedly remarked that not only is Mikaela Shiffrin talented, she's beautiful.

Everyone agreed, but to my surprise, this wasn't why the men at the table were fans. "She's easy to work with. She's kind, she thanks the teams that host her for training and races," one man at the table explained.

As if there needed to be anything else to raise Mikaela Shiffrin's spot in my mind.

Of course we're fans. Not just because of how empowering Shiffrin's presence is to young ski racers, but because of her representation of the USA around the world. Because of her promise to keep giving sports fan something to look forward to. By proving you can have it all, and what it takes to get there is worth paying attention to.

We can't wait to see what next season brings for Shiffrin and for all of us watching. Until then, we're pretty confident she's getting her protein and intense workouts in, and hopefully enjoying a little time with her (also ski racer) boyfriend Aleks, what little free time there is.

Related: "Poachers" Helped Prevent The Opening Of Popular Chairlift At Taos Ski Valley This Week

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