Mikaela Shiffrin won the first women's World Cup race of 2023 in Zagreb, Croatia, giving the American skiier her 81st career victory and moving her to within one of the all-time women's record set by Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin prevailed by 0.76 seconds over Petra Vlhová in the slalom, snapping the Slovakian skiier's streak of three consecutive victories at Zagreb.
Shiffrin now stands to match Vonn's women's record, which she could do as early as Thursday's slalom on the same course. Once that occurs, Shiffrin will be only four wins back of the overall record for most career victories, which was set at 86 career victories by Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden.
Following her win, Shiffrin credited the standard set by Vlhová over the last several years on the course on the outskirts of the Croatian capitol as motivating her to perform at her best.
"I feel like I would not be here tonight with skiing like that, if it wasn't for Petra pushing the limits in the last three years. She's been so strong and it has encouraged me to keep working harder and harder and harder," Shiffrin said in a report by the Associated Press. "Nothing less than the best is going to work. I was taking all the risk I needed and made it on the finish and that's just an amazing feeling when it's good enough."
Shiffrin's victory extended her current win streak to five, putting her in very select company among female skiiers. The only women besides Shiffrin with longer winning streaks are Vreni Schneider's eight victories between 1988 and 1989 and Katja Seizinger's six consecutive wins in 1997.