Extraordinary Shiffrin bestrides unforgettable season while rivals produce magic moments

Mikaela Shiffrin grabbed the women’s 2023 Audi FIS Ski World Cup season and ensured it will never be forgotten.

Records – many of them once considered unbreakable – fell like confetti. The numbers piled up and Alpine skiing found itself on the front pages again and again. The American superstar heads to the beach with her legend secure.

But Shiffrin is not the only titan in women’s skiing right now. Sofia Goggia continued to push her claim to be one of the greatest downhillers of all time, while all-rounder Lara Gut-Behrami shone at times like few have done before her.

Elsewhere, moments of magic delighted many, leaving fans already looking longingly towards next season.

Shiffrin touches the sky

You could write a book – and no doubt people will – on Shiffrin’s 2023 exploits. But there is only one place to start.

On 11 March 2023, at the age of 27, Mikaela Shiffrin became the most successful Alpine World Cup skier ever. Eighty-seven World Cup victories from 246 starts in exactly 12 years. That meant she had won more than one in every three World Cup races she had started – even the great Ingemar Stenmark could not keep up those numbers.

A deep dive into her recently concluded season further illustrates the level of athlete the sport has on its hands. In World Cup slalom races, Shiffrin lined up 11 times, won six, finished second three times, came third once and had a worst result of fifth.

It got even better in giant slalom: the American claimed seven of the 10 races. She rounded off the season with a run of eight wins in nine GS races, a tally which included World Championship gold.

A super-G win – from one of just five starts in the discipline – took her World Cup season tally to 14 victories from 31 starts. Only Shiffrin herself has ever won more times in a single campaign. Her final score of 2,206 points stands behind only Tina Maze’s miracle 2,414 garnered from 35 starts in 2013.

It is tempting to go on and on: Shiffrin’s final win of the season, in the GS at the Finals in Soldeu, was her 21st World Cup triumph in the discipline and took her to 138 World Cup podiums – both are records. But you have to stop somewhere.

Although, in superb news for the sport, Shiffrin said, “I am just getting started,” after cruising past Stenmark’s record.

Goggia – and her hand – star

Remarkably, Shiffrin is not the only one to finish 2023 with an almost ludicrous set of statistics. Goggia took on a World Cup downhill nine times, emerged victorious five times, finished second three times and crashed once.

One of those second places and one win came during 24 gasp-inducing hours in St Moritz. First Goggia broke two fingers during the opening Swiss downhill and still managed to grab the runners-up spot. Then, after a swift operation, she returned the next day bandaged and bloodied to jump up a step on the podium.

It is no wonder Italy’s speed queen said after her final downhill in Soldeu, “My worst (finishing) result was second, I mean ‘kiss my hand’.”

It all meant three downhill crystal globes in a row for Goggia, although Slovenia’s 2017 and 2019 downhill world champion Ilka Stuhec showed a brilliant return to form, winning twice to finish behind Goggia and perhaps signal a sustained challenge in 2024.

Non-stop highlights

If Stuhec’s return to the winner’s circle after a horror injury – a feat matched by the resilient Conny Huetter in a late-season super-G – was a fantastic moment, there were many more.

Those present in Killington, USA in November 2022 are unlikely to ever forget the smile on Wendy Holdener’s face. After finishing on a World Cup slalom podium 30 times without ever winning, the ever-popular Swiss racer took the unfamiliar step up. The fact she did it tied with fellow first-time victor Anna Swenn Larsson only made the cheers louder.

Meanwhile, in a season in which Shiffrin and Goggia’s unmatched brilliance reduced the race for almost all the crystal globes to a formality, one very much stood out. Going into the eighth and final super-G World Cup contest, just 44 points separated the leading five contenders. Perhaps it was no surprise that Switzerland’s Gut-Behrami, one of the greatest discipline practitioners in history, emerged from the pack but it was utterly thrilling.

The woman Gut-Behrami pipped to super-G glory, Federica Brignone, enjoyed a terrific season of her own, capped by gold in the World Championship Alpine combined. She may be 32 but the Italian remains a huge figure on tour.

Shock champions and sad farewells

Courchevel Meribel played host to a World Championships that delighted and surprised in equal measure. While Shiffrin and Brignone might have been on many people’s lists as likely gold medallists, Jasmine Flury (SUI), the downhill champion, and Laurence St Germain (CAN), the slalom winner, were certainly not.

The home crowd did not quite get the results they wanted on the women’s side but they did take the opportunity to say a fond farewell to one of their own. Tessa Worley, the long-time queen of French skiing, heads off into the sunset with two world championship titles, two crystal globes and the undeniable title of an all-time great GS skier.

Fellow former world champion Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT) joins Worley in hanging up her competitive skis, as does Marie-Michele Gagnon, the Canadian with more World Cup starts than any other Alpine ski racer from her nation.

While those three will not be back, the rest of us will when racing resumes in the European autumn, from which point the world will finally get a chance to see what Shiffrin has in store next.