'I can't believe it': Shiffrin equals Vonn's record with 82nd World Cup win

Mikaela Shiffrin crossed the finish line, saw the No. 1 next to her name on the screen for the 82nd time in a World Cup race, screamed in delight and then sank to her knees in disbelief.

After dominating Sunday's giant slalom in Kranjska Gora to equal compatriot Lindsey Vonn's women's World Cup victories record, the normally reserved American superstar was overcome with emotion in the finish area.

"I can't believe it," Shiffrin said moments afterwards, on the verge of tears after months — years, even — of deflecting talk about chasing this record.

"I was so nervous this run, I have a rash on my face because I was so nervous," she added. "I don't know why, maybe a little bit was because of 82.

"I really wanted to ski it well, and I did."

Did she ever. Shiffrin produced a giant slalom masterclass in the Slovenian Alps to win by 0.77 seconds over Italy's Federica Brignone, with Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami recovering from Saturday's disappointment to claim third.

First out of the gate in the first run, Shiffrin put down a slick, error-free run to set a time that would not be threatened, with only Brignone (+0.24s) and Canada's Valérie Grenier (+0.39s) able to come within 0.70 seconds of the lead.

Skiing last in the second run, Shiffrin skied spectacularly to increase her advantage at each of the first three intermediate splits and eventually win by over three-quarters of a second.

"I hope some day I can ski like that again because it was maybe the best thing I ever did in a GS," she said.

"I got a report from the coaches that everything is fully attackable so really you have to go for it. I've been in this position and I've given it away and today I wanted to fight for it."

That determination led Shiffrin to her sixth win in the last seven races and ultimately to the magic number of 82 victories, divided between slalom (51), giant slalom (17), super-G (5), downhill (3), city events (3), parallel slalom (2) and Alpine combined (1).

The 27-year-old claimed her first World Cup victory at age 17 in December 2012 and has taken only 233 races to reach 82 wins, a rate of one victory for every 2.84 starts.

By contrast, Vonn won her first World Cup race at age 20 and her last at age 33, winning once per 4.82 starts over her 395-race career.

Vonn won 53 World Cup races by the age Shiffrin is now and claimed 29 more victories thereafter, with her last triumph coincidentally taking place in the same resort as Shiffrin's first — Are, Sweden — in March 2018.

One more victory will give Shiffrin the outright women's mark and pull her to within three of the record of 86 World Cup wins in men's or women's Alpine skiing, held by legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark.

Back on the slope, runner-up Brignone made a small mistake at the top of her second run and could have been heading for another finish just off the podium, a trend for her this season with four results of fourth or fifth in the five previous giant slalom races.

"Today I had a super first run, and the second run I started really a bit sleepy and then I said to myself, 'You wake up or you're going to end again fourth or fifth,' so I really tried my best and I was pushing 'til the end," she said.

She powered home to finish second for her 50th World Cup podium, ahead of Gut-Behrami, who moved up from fifth with a flawless second run, a day after a poor second run caused her to miss the podium.

But despite the impressive podium finishes for Brignone and Gut-Behrami, Shiffrin tying Vonn's record was the only thing on anyone's mind after the race, to Shiffrin's slight embarrassment.

"Maybe at some point people will stop talking about it," she said. "I'm trying not to think about it, I'm trying not to change my goals for this record.

"But it's 82 victories, it's a bit indescribable."